THE EMOJI MOVIE Review

This may come as a shock to many of you, but The Emoji Movie is not good. In fact, it's really bad. Bad in the way that it doesn't even try much of the time. Bad in the way that it is intended to be a funny children's film with a message about championing individuality and being yourself, but even that tried and true formula falls flat. Did I say it was supposed to be funny? It's not funny. It tries, it has obvious attempts at humor, but it's not funny. Worse, it has a talented and typically hilarious group of people providing the voices for much of these humanoid expressions that exist in a world that doesn't make much sense in the first place. Let's start over as this would be the initial issue that only leads to more of these problems that spawn from the fact this is a movie based on emoji's. It would probably be big of me to say that this movie isn't bad simply because it is a movie based on emoji's, but it is. It represents everything wrong with the studio system from the perspective of attempting a cash grab without any measure of creativity or thought put into the actual work. There are no signs of life within this thing other than our protagonist going through the motions of feeling like an outcast, being brave enough to break out of his shell, and discover that it's okay to be different. That's all well and good, but you as well as your kids have seen this countless times before and The Emoji Movie brings nothing new to it with the fact it's emoji's going through these (e)motions only making it that much more grating. Worse even, it's beyond transparent that writer/director Tony Leondis (2008's terrible Igor as well as a few other animated shorts) and his two co-writers Eric Siegel (a TV veteran) and Mike White (Mike White!) could care less about the movie they are working on. No doubt receiving an assignment from head honcho's at Sony Animation that they needed something aimed at the kids after their one-two punch for teens and adults with Spider-Man: Homecoming and Baby Driver the studio latched on to current trends via The LEGO Movie and Wreck-it Ralph and demanded a movie based on those faces kids were using to communicate with on their phones. Leondis, Siegel, and White mix in a little Toy Story as well with hopes of no one noticing and yet The Emoji Movie is so distractingly bad that it doesn't become an issue of the movie being based around characters who are emoticons, but more the fact the whole thing never breaks through that barrier of convincing us why it's necessary.  

KEANU Review

When Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key began their sketch comedy series in 2012 I wasn't aware of either comic in any large capacity save for a few supporting roles in random comedies. While I never jumped on the bandwagon that was the huge following their Comedy Central show soon amassed I saw enough clips on YouTube to know these guys were smart, insightful comedians who enjoyed commenting on social expectations by upending them in inventive ways. Most of these having to do with race or gender stereotypes, but nevertheless they were smart enough about their approach that many of their sketches quickly became cultural reference points in the same way Chappelle's show had a decade earlier. When Key and Peele's show ended in the fall of last year it was somewhat surprising given their three year run had yielded them great success, numerous opportunities, and it more or less seemed as if the duo were just beginning to really heat up. Talk about going out on top. It seems that with all the free time ending their show opened up for them the comedic duo decided it was time to take their act to the big screen. With the danger of wearing out their welcome by translating what worked for them in a five minute sketch to feature length as well as taking into account the low success rate of sketches turned into feature films the odds were never in their favor, but alas Key and Peele have made their formula work for them more than it doesn't. Again, coming from a position of having seen only a handful of sketches from what I'm sure is a much larger, more illustrious library than I can even imagine I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from Keanu, but due to the fact I largely enjoy broad comedies with outlandish premises that expose those premises for all they're worth Keanu largely succeeds in the goals it sets for itself. Of course, given I'd seen only what is likely the highest highlights from their show I was hoping for more consistent laughter, but there are enough big laughs here to tide one over when the movie intermittently forgets what it's supposed to be in exchange for the authenticity of what it is supposedly lampooning.

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 Review

Back in 2009 I walked, unsuspecting, into an IMAX theater on a rainy, early morning looking to fill my day with nothing but pure escapism and hopefully a little fun. It was a weekday and no one else was in the theater and so I sat in what I could most accurately pinpoint as the center of this massive room and kicked back in front of the largest screen my state has to offer to watch an animated film. I had no expectations, but I was beginning to attempt to see as many films as possible so I could write about them regularly and though I hadn't heard much about this smaller, but impressively cast flick I was excited because the great Bill Hader was getting a leading role and I'd heard good things about the source material it came from. Needless to say, I came out of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs having done nothing short of escaping the dreary day outside and getting wrapped up in the story of Flint Lockwood and Swallow Falls. Not only had the film provided gorgeous animation to drench the world and its creations in, but it was relentlessly funny. I laughed from beginning to end. Directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord (21 Jump Street) had given the film a quirky sense of humor and a pacing that never allowed the audience to get hung up on anything they didn't want them too, keeping the focus on Flint and his invention while littering this world with interesting and funny supporting characters that added layers and layers of, well, character. Once again, needless to say, I was slightly worried when they announced a sequel, but not because I wasn't interested in the further adventures of Flint and his gang, but because Miller and Lord wouldn't be returning to the directors chairs and what set the film apart from the rest of the pack was its off-brand of humor and break-neck pacing that matched its protagonists energy. Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn do well to take notes from their predecessors though as they allow Cloudy 2 to pick up the comedic end of the stick and run with it while delivering all the food puns you could ever hope to enjoy. In a year filled with sub-par animated features, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 stands to be the funniest and most enjoyable trip of the year.

First Trailer for CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2

Back in 2009 I was pleasantly surprised by a little animated film called Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. I went in not expecting much above the average, but liking the voice cast well enough to check it out on my own. I came out of that screening a huge fan of the film and continuously smiling throughout the rest of the day thinking of the jokes and left of center humor the feature carried. I was more than pleased to hear there would be a sequel for the film and today we have the first trailer for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. The story picks up as our heroes Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) and Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) return to Swallow Falls to clean up the mess left behind from the first film. Upon arriving they find Flint's machine has created a world where the food is beginning to evolve and take on the form of animals and weird creatures. The animation looks fantastic here and some of the favorite characters from the original are returning as well. The makers also look to have succeeded in keeping the humor intact for this sequel. I laughed several times throughout the trailer and really appreciate the creativity put into the new inhabitants of Swallow Falls. That is what should drive every animated film, and like the original this looks like it is going to be a ton of fun with plenty of color and character for the young ones to enjoy while plenty of subdued humor to keep the adults chuckling and awake. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 also features the voices of Andy Samberg, Benjamin Bratt, Terry Crews, and Neil Patrick Harris and opens in 3D on September 27th. Hit the jump to check out the first trailer.

MOVIE 43 Review

I don't even know where to start with this movie. It is certainly going to be impossible to write a full evaluation of the film as I would usually be able to do with a typical film as this is not your typical film, and I don't mean that in a good way...at all. Over the past year or so I'd heard rumblings of what exactly Movie 43 was or what it was supposed to be. Naturally, the main thing we heard about it was that it contained an onslaught of Hollywood A-listers that were melded together to form some kind of rampant comedy that moves through its stars as fast as it does offensive jokes. Problem with the film is that it is trying way too hard and only succeeding once in a blue moon to really capture any genuinely funny moments. I won't lie in saying I was somewhat excited to see the film, as someone who enjoys mainstream comedy and this one in particular having seemingly no regard for what people might say no matter who it offended, sounded rather intriguing and fun. I can buy into that kind of thing and see having a great time with it but even more than being completely tasteless, Movie 43 is more than anything just dumb. With this ridiculously large, sprawling all-star cast you might expect there to have been some real incentive making each of them want to participate or feel attracted to the project and with a reported budget of only $6 million it certainly wasn't the money. What could it have been that drew in so many big-name actors and actresses an convinced them this was a good idea? We may never know because all we are left with is a steaming pile of unfunny droppings of underdeveloped sketches that wouldn't even make it onto a bad episode of Saturday Night Live.

THE DICTATOR Review

Sacha Baron Cohen has made a career out of being outlandish and extremely inappropriate and does not shy away from that image in his latest "The Dictator". The man behind "Borat" and "Bruno" trades in his non-scripted documentary-like features for his first scripted romp and he comes out, for the most part, unscathed. I have always enjoyed the extreme lengths to which Baron Cohen was willing to go for his laughs and while I feared that the change to a scripted format would make the moments of random acts towards unexpected onlookers lose some of the edge out of his wit I was pleasantly surprised by how hard it was for me to contain my outbursts. There were several times throughout the screening where I couldn't help but to laugh out loud. I know it to be a film where I thought it genuinely funny because there were only four other people in the theater and so, I was not coaxed into laughing because everyone else was. Instead, I reacted out of pure surprise and sometimes shock at how far the comedian was willing to go, the racist, insensitive, hateful things he was willing to say to get a laugh and though I tried my best to put myself in the shoes of those who were being ridiculed, therein lies the trick. No one in particular can lay claim that Baron Cohen is after them specifically because "The Dictator" is universally offensive and in some way is making fun of every single person that is watching it, we are essentially laughing at ourselves. Someone once said we need to find humor in everything and if you agree with that statement then you should certainly be commending Mr. Cohen because he goes the extra mile to make sure we laugh at not just the most vulgar of acts, but the most ridiculous of realities.

Tamir (Ben Kingsley) and General Aldeen (Sacha Baron
Cohen) are welcomed to the U.S. by John C. Reilly.

While the one thing Baron Cohen has always suffered from is not having a strong sense of storyline I would have thought he might have stepped that aspect up here seeing as it was scripted, but while there are clearly attempts at stringing together something logical it is mainly an excuse for Baron Cohen to get his point across. What little traces there are of a story concern Admiral General Aladeen (Baron Cohen) the dictator of a fictional north African country called Wadiya. Naturally he wants to build nuclear weapons and naturally he is then summoned to the U.S. to speak to the UN to explain his reasonings for the weapons and his plans for his country. Aladeen's right hand man and uncle Tamir (an underused Ben Kingsley) has other plans once they reach the states though and hires a hitman in the form of John C. Reilly to take out the dictator so Tamir may use an idiotic double to run the country as he should have been allowed to in the first place. Aladeen escapes his attempted torture session and runs into Zoey (Anna Faris) the purposefully lesbian-looking, liberal owner of a eco-friendly grocery store. Aladeen befriends Zoey in an attempt to regain control of his country. There are consistent stabs at the west for our general perceptions of this mix of real-life dictators that Baron Cohen has combined to create Aladeen and everything they stand for. Baron Cohen has made Aladeen a dimwitted  loose canon of a ruler who finds pleasure in his power. He pays the rich and famous for carnal needs (insert Megan Fox cameo) but desires more from the relationships. He has the audacity to change words in the Wadiyan dictionary to his name that cause a good amount of confusion (a running gag that really works). He operates his own Olympic games and once he arrives in the good ole' U.S. of A. he seems to make some slight observations that offer a great moment at the end that truly plays toward the more satirical direction I expected the film to take.

Zoey (Anna Faris) and Aladeen defend his remarks on a
helicopter to one of his arresting officers.

The film overall though is filled with more broad humor. I should have known better than to actually think Baron Cohen would subdue himself just to get his actual point across when he could be as gross out as he wanted or maybe needed to be. While the satire was merely sprinkled here and there we are also given more than enough offensive stuff going on throughout to satisfy fans who are going in expecting Baron Cohen to be like his characters of the past. You can see shades of Borat within Aladeen but the main issue I have with "The Dictator" is that while "Borat" was a film that had no shame in crossing the line it also seemed to have a purpose to its menace, to its controversial statements. what was enticing about it was that this stranger was forcing us to take a look in the mirror while "The Dictator" is clearly trying to make a similar kind of statement it doesn't feel as fresh at times and certain gags, such as having as talking on the phone while the phone is inside a woman's vagina, feel not necessarily out of place, but certainly not justified in any way. I laughed, sure but I wanted more out of it. I wanted to lose it like I did the first time I watched "Borat". It is evident from Cohen's writing that he likes to follow a similar format and in doing so he has given himself a sidekick again, this time in the form of Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas) who used to be Wadiya's former head scientist in charge of creating the nuclear weapons that was dispatched by Aladeen because he would not make the bombs with a point. There is some great scenes between the two of them (one in which is the helicopter ride you've seen in the previews) that produces some great banter and indeed another running gag with a deceased African-American's head that is yes, really funny. The unusual camaraderie between the two stands out but that only seems to be because the other characters critical to the story are simply sketches of stereotypes. This especially applies to Faris's character who is supposed to be the main love interest but proves to be of little interest at all despite Faris's honest comedic efforts.

Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas) shows the Dictator his new
nuclear weapons.

While I was not blown away with hilarity by the film as I wanted to be it did prove to be a worthwhile endeavor. Granted the film only runs for about 84 minutes. Still, this is a positive in the light that it gives the film a light, zany feel that zips from one joke to the next without focusing too long on whether it landed of flopped. There are plenty of celebrity cameos to spice up the going-on's including a nicely placed bit by Edward Norton. The real focus here though is in fact the character that Baron Cohen has created and who the movie is named for and in that regard it is easy to say that Aladeen dominates every scene he is in, though I did appreciate Sir Ben Kingsley's choice to play it straight with only a slight wink to the audience. It is too bad he was not a more integral part of the story that we watched play out on screen for as much as I enjoyed Nadal and Aladeen's back and forth I would have loved to watch Baron Cohen and Kingsley go toe to toe with one another. There is no shame in laughing at what the comedian has presented here as being offensive for he has only summed up the naivety and misplaced morality of people that he has seen in the world no matter the race or religion. He is laughing at us, he is pointing out obvious missteps while making us realize how dumb they look when we take a step back and look at them with a different perspective. Baron Cohen may not come off as if he is trying to get a serious message across with his films, but I have never questioned the comedian's intelligence and it is clear from every one of his projects that he is attempting to not simply analyze the culture with which we live, but he wants to expose it for what it really is and maybe, just maybe, in the end, help fix it. Side note: check out the soundtrack...it's awesome.

THE DICTATOR Review

Sacha Baron Cohen has made a career out of being outlandish and extremely inappropriate and does not shy away from that image in his latest "The Dictator". The man behind "Borat" and "Bruno" trades in his non-scripted documentary-like features for his first scripted romp and he comes out, for the most part, unscathed. I have always enjoyed the extreme lengths to which Baron Cohen was willing to go for his laughs and while I feared that the change to a scripted format would make the moments of random acts towards unexpected onlookers lose some of the edge out of his wit I was pleasantly surprised by how hard it was for me to contain my outbursts. There were several times throughout the screening where I couldn't help but to laugh out loud. I know it to be a film where I thought it genuinely funny because there were only four other people in the theater and so, I was not coaxed into laughing because everyone else was. Instead, I reacted out of pure surprise and sometimes shock at how far the comedian was willing to go, the racist, insensitive, hateful things he was willing to say to get a laugh and though I tried my best to put myself in the shoes of those who were being ridiculed, therein lies the trick. No one in particular can lay claim that Baron Cohen is after them specifically because "The Dictator" is universally offensive and in some way is making fun of every single person that is watching it, we are essentially laughing at ourselves. Someone once said we need to find humor in everything and if you agree with that statement then you should certainly be commending Mr. Cohen because he goes the extra mile to make sure we laugh at not just the most vulgar of acts, but the most ridiculous of realities.