Red State (2011)

Red State is a film that I have been highly anticipating ever since it was announced several years ago. Add on the Sundance Film Festival fiasco where Kevin Smith purchased the film himself and took it on a nationwide tour, it made me even for excited for the Video-On-Demand release on September 1st. And to top off that anticipation, I was lucky enough to attend his Comic Con panel where he showed the audience a five minute clip of the film in Blu-ray sound and quality. However once the extremely divisive reviews started to pour in, I started to grow a very skeptical and a brooding feeling inside me that I could be wrong that Kevin Smith trying something new in his style would be interesting.

Three horny high school students (Michael Angarano,Kyle Gallner,and Nicholas Braun) receive an online invitation from a woman who invites them for a group orgy. Unbeknownst to them though, the woman is Sarah Cooper (Melissa Leo), the daughter of the cult Five Points Church Pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), who he and his followers are immense opposers on the subject of homophobia. She spikes the beers she gives the three teens and they're transported to the church to be killed for their "sins." However, the ATF and police arrive at the scene which sparks a deadly shootout between the Five Points priest and his followers. Basically, the first half of the film draws heavily upon the real-life religious extremist group Westboro Baptist Church led by the infamous priest Fred Phelps, and the second half derives mostly off of the famous 1993 Waco,Texas, ATF siege on the Branch Davidian ranch which ended in a deadly shootout killing almost 80.

All the performances aren't strong because almost every character in this film is unlikeable in their own way. The three teenage boys are unlikeable from the very beginning, because they are so one-note in their characterization, therefore leading to the fact there isn't one moment where you're going to  feel bad for what they go through. Some people have been raving that Michael Parks deserves some awards contention for his performance, but I'll be one of those few that say all he does is just play extremely over-the-top, but the script simply doesn't allow him to push into the territory of being scary or fun over-the-top. The only actor I feel that did a halfway decent job was John Goodman as ATF Special Agent Keenan. It was cool to see him dive into a more dramatic territory in his acting which is sometimes a rare occurrence in his career. In addition, his character is about the only likeable one in the film. On the reverse end, though, there is a plephora of great actors in the supporting cast including Kevin Alejandro,Kevin Pollak,Matt L. Jones,Anna Gunn,and Stephen Root who are all completely wasted of their potential, because their characters are either completely unlikeable or heavily underutilized, thus preventing them from fulfilling their complete acting potential.

The real blame of this film,though,is unfortunately placed on writer/director Kevin Smith. His choice of departing from his usual directing style of just keeping the camera still and having his characters let loose on the genius witty dialogue he writes is completely abolished for an overload of poorly explored themes,constant hand-held camera work,and an overload of dialogue that just bores you instead of making you laugh. For instance, the movie presents several themes mostly in the categories of homophobia,extremist cult religions,and a possible satire on the kooks of the Westboro Baptist Church. To be truthful, the people of that church are the people I hate the most in America because I'm part of a military family, and the fact that they picket military funerals creates the biggest "F*ck You!" I have towards anybody in the world. However, Smith seems to not have the slightest clue on how to fully utilize all of these themes in a coherent manner as they jump from one to the next every scene, and never revisits them for the rest of the film. There are scenes of dialogue that should be interesting, but instead several conversations occur where I just wanted a new scene to occur because the lines spoken are boring and tedious. And when the second half rolls around to the big standoff, Smith believes that killing off characters by surprise will be a shocker to the audience, but since all of the characters in this film are either unlikeable or barely do anything rational to the plot in their short screen time, you'll figure out that you simply won't care at all. Finally, his attempts at incorporating humor fall so flat that it does no justice to a film that is already deteriorating at a rapid pace from being anything okay. On a brighter note though, I did dig the grimy setting of the film where almost every shot is very gray and grim in its look.

Red State is one of, if not the biggest catastrophic failure of the year. In the end, this film is all hype and nearly nothing redeeming in its content. In addition towards the end, there is a jump cut where the film suddenly shifts from what could be an exciting confrontation to a boring negotiation scene that feels completely out of place compared to the rest of the film's events. I was sorely disappointed by how much of a trite mess Red State was, and the fact that I'm a devoted Kevin Smith fan made this experience even more painful and unforgivable. Please save your $9.99 and avoid renting this movie On-Demand from anywhere it can be bought, because it is one of the biggest calamities in film this year.

Final Grade: D

30 Minutes or Less (2011)

30 Minutes or Less looked like it could be one of the best late summer surprise comedies of the summer. Based off of the previews, it already had a stellar comedy cast consisting of Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari, Danny McBride, and Nick Swardson. And the fact that you had Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer helming this project (in addition to re-teaming with Eisenberg for the first time since 2009's Zombieland), it looked like nothing could go wrong with it. However, this movie actually turned out to be one of the most disappointing comedies of the year.

Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a pot smoking pizza delivery boy who confides himself to a very basic slacker lifestyle. Meanwhile, Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson) are two dim-witted criminals who concoct a plan to murder Dwayne's lottery winning father (Fred Ward) so they can inherit his fortune. The duo calls up the pizzeria Nick works for, and of course Nick is the one to show up. He gets attacked by the two and has a bomb vest placed on his chest which will detonate in 9 hours unless he robs a bank to pay for the hitman who will kill Dwayne's father. Nick teams up with his best friend Chet (Aziz Ansari), and what ensues is a fast-paced buddy action-comedy.

After winning me over with his fantastic portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg has returned back to his typecasted zone of playing the neurotic guy who sputters his lines out like he's the long lost son of Woody Allen. There are some moments where his matured acting emerges in the most random moments of the film, but it was very underwhelming overall. Aziz Ansari actually delivered the best moments in the film. His schtick is definitely not for everyone, but he had some chuckle-worthy moments involving his improvisation. Eisenberg and Ansari had decent chemistry between each other, but the script doesn't give them enough funny moments to work with. Danny McBride and Nick Swardson, though, really brought this movie down. McBride's schtick of saying the f-word for laughs has gotten very old in the past couple films he's starred in, and here he overuses it constantly to a point where you just want a break from his character fort the rest of the film. Nick Swardson also follows a similar style like McBride's which made me laugh probably twice or three times in the film, but my respect for him lowered even more when the abysmal trailer for his new film Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star played before the movie started.

In Zombieland, director Ruben Fleischer showed a lot of promise with his ability to mash a whole bunch of genres into one movie while still making it a lot of fun. The one positive thing in his directing for this film, though, is that he gives the film a constant fast pace in which the series of events the characters go through pass by rapidly. However, I can't place the blame on him for how underwhelming the final product is, because I think the script (written by first-time scribe Michael Diliberti) contains moments of humor that are very sporadic, and the moments for potential comedy gold are replaced with scenes that feel very disjointed to the main plot of the film.

I thought 30 Minutes or Less could have been one of the funniest comedies of the summer along with the likes of great comedies we've already had this summer including Bridesmaids and Horrible Bosses. But instead, it's a very sporadically funny film plagued by inconsistent writing and annoying performances by Danny McBride and Nick Swardson. I did chuckle off an on throughout the film, but those chuckles were far and few between the longer this film went on for. Thank god it went by fast, though.

Final Grade: C

Drive (2011)

When I attended Comic Con 2011, I managed to catch early screenings for two films: Drive and the 3D remake of Fright Night. The first of those two I saw was Drive, which is definitely the most of all of the films they were showing around downtown San Diego during the four days of the Con. Believe it or not, this was my most anticipated film to see when I was down there, especially for the fact that it won Best Director at this year's Cannes, and that it came very close to winning the Palme d'Or over The Tree of Life. Before the screening began, director Nicolas Winding Refn along with stars Carey Mulligan and Ron Perlman appeared to give a short introduction to the film and then it began. 

Ryan Gosling plays the unnamed protagonist who is a Hollywood stunt driver by day and a getaway driver for criminals at night. His boss Shannon (Bryan Cranston...hell yeah) books him a job with a new shady client named Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks), while in the meantime, Gosling's character strikes up a friendship with his single mother neighbor (Carey Mulligan). But her husband (Oscar Isaac) returns home to disrupt their relationship from reaching further heights. He's in trouble to pull off a final job, though, and he recruits Driver to be his getaway driver. And that's the point where the job gets botched and the rest of the film kicks into major overdrive. 

This is a very daunting challenge for Ryan Gosling's acting because his character is very silent for most of the film and it's his facial expressions that do most of the acting. However, he does a sensational job as his performance pays a brilliant ode to characters of the neo-noir genre who slowly pace their line delivery and don't even say much which makes the viewer feel more weary of what they'll do when they hit their breaking point. Carey Mulligan drives the emotional strength of this film as her performance is similar to Gosling's with the slow line delivery, but she continues to show that she's one of the strongest female actresses of this current generation in the industry. Bryan Cranston (with hair) and Ron Perlman also manage to deliver commendable performances as well, even though their characters aren't utilized as much as I thought they'd be. Albert Brooks on the other hand, is the real scene stealer of this film. He's mostly known for playing neurotic characters for most films he stars in, but here he gets to play a shady businessman that goes completely insane and slimy when things go wrong. And when things go wrong, boy does he become evil! Be on the lookout for his name to pop up during awards season because his performance is nothing short of brilliant in this film.

Nicolas Winding Refn has officially become the new Tarantino (but without the humor) of today's industry as he directs this film masterfully. Refn builds up moments of unbelievable moments of tension to before these bursts of extremely shocking and bloody violence, which really reminded me of Tarantino's style of doing the same thing in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. In addition, Refn also uses the sudden tone change in a perfect way, especially involving a scene in an elevator with Gosling and Mulligan that immediately switches the film from a love triangle to a very bloody revenge thriller. And look out American History X, because that scene just about put your curb stomping scene to shame! Newton Thomas Siegel's cinematography is breathtaking, especially within the nighttime shots of downtown Los Angeles which perfectly convey the moody tone the film takes on in the first half of its duration. In addition, the chase sequences are filmed to perfection as the camera angles used for those scenes will remind you of the way car chases were filmed back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as you can hint that the Steve McQueen classic Bullitt served as an inspiration for both Refn's directing style and Gosling's performance.

Overall, Drive is an unforgettable thriller with lots of odes to the art house and neo-noir genres in tow. Flat out fantastic performances across the board from all of the main actors (especially Gosling and Brooks) along with very stylish direction by Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive is a film that will be either an international box office hit, or one that will only be appreciated by the film geeks who have a passion for the art house or neo-noir genre. Whether or not it will fall into the realms of one of those two, it is sure to be a cult classic in the future because this is definitely one of those films you shouldn't miss because it will talked about a lot come next year's awards season.

Final Grade: A

                                                          

The Change-Up (2011)

Body switch comedies over the last 10 years have mostly become cliched messes. However this time around, we have a film that puts a new spin on the genre with the r-rated raunchy form with The Change-Up. Before I start the main bulk of my review, though, I must say that I have only seen the Freaky Friday remake out of all of the body switch comedies out there. The Change-Up however, actually delivers its promise that it puts a new spin on this genre with crazy situations combined with both sheer ridiculousness and often hardcore raunchiness.

Dave (Jason Bateman) is workaholic lawyer who's close to achieving partner status at his firm, but he can't catch a break in his personal life outside of work because of taking care of his three kids and wife (Leslie Mann). Mitch (Ryan Reynolds) on the other hand, is the total opposite of Dave. He's a definitive slacker trying to kick-start his acting career which hasn't taken him too far in the direction he wants it to be in. The two finally get a night to hang out together at a bar to watch an Atlanta Braves game (who are actually my favorite MLB team since I was 7) and they get too drunk which leads to them peeing in a "magical fountain" that performs the "body switch" on them when they both say at the same time that they wish they had each others lives. And what ensues is an extremely insane and raunchy comedy that sure stands alone in its genre for now.

For a body switch comedy to work consistently, you need two actors that need to have great chemistry together and say their lines with spot-on delivery. And surprisingly, Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds are both fantastic in their roles. For the first twenty minutes of the film, Bateman is playing his Arrested Development character he's been doing in the majority of the films he's starred in, while Reynolds is the foul-mouthed, wisecracking slacker. However once the body switch occurs, Jason Bateman commands this film. It's so rare to see him play a more edgy role than the other films he's starred in before, and you can tell that he fully embraces this opportunity he's given from the very moments Reynolds' character becomes him. And Ryan Reynolds also manages to do a decent job as Jason Bateman's character, too. Leslie Mann also has several comedic moments and she plays over-the-top well for scenes that are meant to be over-serious until they end with a comedic payoff. Olivia Wilde is hotter than ever with darker hair and before I begin to sound anymore like a drooling 13 year-old talking about her, I have to say that she displayed some good comedic chops on screen as well, and she also had good chemistry with Ryan Reynolds. However I think Alan Arkin's character could've been written out of the film because his scenes just don't really do justice to anything that happens in the film and they feel very out of place.

David Dobkin does a decent job directing this film, even though the tones switch so quick between lighthearted comedy and extreme raunchiness. At least he's doing himself justice with this film from what he did by taking a step back when he directed Fred Claus in 2007. Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (writers of The Hangover) pile on the cliches of this genre but make up for them by cooking up some very insane comedic set pieces, especially scenes involving a  lawyer's meeting and when Jason Bateman deals with the twins in his family. Some moments in the script seem to stretch too far on the gross humor at times and there are points in those gross out gags where they just drag out for too long. In addition, the ending scenes are dragged out for a little too long as well.

The Change-Up is definitely not the best comedy I've seen this year, but it's still  a very entertaining and funny spin on the body switch comedy genre. Thanks to the brilliant chemistry between Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds along with some of the most insane comedy moments I have seen this year, The Change-Up is a slightly flawed but still very funny film, however I wouldn't recommend it being a date movie because of some of its gross out gags. From the opening scene alone, I might have second thoughts of having kids in the future.

Final Grade: B

Crazy Stupid Love (2011)

You better be listening to this Cowboys & Aliens, because this is how you live up to your film's title. Crazy Stupid Love is yet another romantic comedy to come out this year, but I have to say it's actually a very refreshing take on the genre that mixes together great situational comedy moments along with human drama that is very relatable. And you definitely can do no wrong with a cast like this, too.

Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is left with the stunning news that his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) suddenly wants to divorce him after she cheats on him with her business partner David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon). Cal soon receives help from charming, womanizing guru Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling) so he can redeem his relationship personality. Meanwhile Jacob has doubts about his constant pick-ups when his advances fail on a girl named Hannah (Emma Stone). In addition, Cal and Emily's son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) is making advances on his babysitter Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), who is four years older than him. Everything soon becomes intertwined and it certainly lives up to the ultimate potential outcome of what the film's title promises. And boy towards the end does it promise!

Seeing Steve Carrell in a more light-hearted comedy is mostly rare, but he has been able to show his potential in this sub-genre before when he starred in Little Miss Sunshine. Carrell finds a perfect balance between the serious and humorous sides of his character, and it is definitely his most realistic and human performance since his surprising supporting turn in Little Miss Sunshine. Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, and Marisa Tomei round up the female train of this amazing cast, and they all turn in terrific performances by also blending together very human scenes along with spot-on comedic timing. And I can never get enough of seeing Kevin Bacon starring in more movies each year because he's one of the most underrated actors in the business today. But the real standout is definitely Ryan Gosling. He usually isn't very comedic in most movies he stars in, but here his charming charisma is combined with very witty lines, and they're both blended together perfectly, as he turns in one of the best performances of his career.

Glenn Ficarra and John Requa direct this film with a very realistic vision as they balance the differing tones of dark comedy and human drama with great ease and never let them crash into each other in abrupt manners. It's interesting to see one of the writers of the Disney animated film Bolt be the writer behind this film, but it's a move that surprisingly works. Screenwriter Dan Fogelman's script is filled with witty one-liners for nearly every main character, but it also balances the multi-faceted story arc along with the transitions between the movie's themes involving the sweet,witty,and very realistic subject manner.

Crazy Stupid Love is without a doubt the best romantic comedy I've seen this year. Everything is solid from the very realistic performances from the amazing cast to the brilliant balance of scenes involving situation comedy and real human drama. A must see for any filmbuff out there, but I wouldn't really call this a date movie because the trailer is misleading on that subject.

Final Grade: B+