THE HOUSE Review

It's a sad day when one of your comedic icons who you grew up watching seemingly puts the nail in their proverbial comedy coffin, but that seems to be where we're at with Will Ferrel's career. Ferrell needs another Adam McKay collaboration and stat. After a rather stale streak post Anchorman 2 (which I loved) that has included Get Hard, Daddy's Home, and Zoolander 2 I was personally hoping for something of a turn in what would be Ferrell's first R-rated comedy since Get Hard which also happens to be the directorial debut of Andrew Jay Cohen who has written or co-written the screenplays for both Neighbors films as well as last summer's rather surprising Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Needless to say, Cohen and writing partner Brendan O'Brien have crafted a premise that is a perfect jumping off point for a Will Ferrell comedy, but it's pretty clear from the get-go that this is going to be one of those comedies that falls into the cheaper-feeling, amateur hour-type category. The House was never going to reach the intelligence levels of Ferrell's work with McKay, but it isn't able to even touch something like Blades of Glory which too felt cheap, no doubt, but was so consistently outrageous that it held itself up. Rather, The House is a movie that would have been a hotly-anticipated comedy five to eight years ago as it is the first time Ferrell has been paired with the ever-endearing Amy Poehler, but as things stand today there are seemingly no other marquee movie stars left besides *maybe* Kevin Hart, but even he has to be in the right vehicle for the box office to reward him. Ferrell is the last of a nearly dead breed and you can see the wear on his exterior as he sleepwalks his way through The House. It's not only a little sad to behold, but disappointing in that I've previously always looked forward to a Will Ferrell comedy and even if no one else in the world might understand why-I was still excited for The House in hopes that Cohen might offer a new voice in the comedy world, someone who was hungry to jump start what has felt like an unusually stale output from the likes of Ferrell and his normal co-horts over the past few years, but instead of reinvigorating anything Cohen has made a film that fits snuggly between the letdowns that have been Ferrell's last few films.

CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE Review

It was nice, for once, to walk into a movie having not watched a single trailer, having not read the source material, and literally having zero to no expectation for what was about to be delivered. This type of movie-going experience doesn't happen often in the age of the twenty-four hour news cycle, especially when large portions of that cycle are dedicated to updating fans on every inch of a new movie's production status. The truth of the matter though, was that I personally had zero interest in Captain Underpants, his books, or his potential movies and chalked this initial feature up to being nothing more than a relatively cheap and easy cash grab to capitalize on the popular book series by Dav Pilkey. Still, even this kind of "brand recognition" mentality seemed like it wouldn't serve DreamWorks Animation in the way they might hope as the last I'd heard of the Captain Underpants books was when my younger brother discovered them in elementary school as they gained popularity...in the late nineties. There have been some rather large gaps in the publishing of Captain Underpants novels, but apparently Pilkey is still going strong today and given it's been almost two years since the last Captain Underpants adventure I'm assuming fans might have even been excited for the prospect of a new Underpants adventure not to mention the first one they might experience on the big screen. And so, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is here and while, again, I couldn't have been more unaware of what a movie that had "underpants" in the title could possibly deliver it actually is a rather inspired and genuinely funny piece of entertainment. Granted, this is all very silly and rather outlandish while capitalizing on the fact it knows it's capitalizing on potty humor, but nonetheless the titular character and his creators, elementary school students George (Kevin Hart) and Harold (Thomas Middleditch), burst through scene after scene with tireless enthusiasm and a joy for life and all its possibilities that's downright contagious. Though I have no idea how faithful this film is to a certain novel or the series in general I have to imagine that what is captured on screen is very close to the spirit of Pilkey's series as the most vital ingredient in Captain Underpants is that of getting the audience to view these adventures through the minds of George and Harold and it is in this regard that I came to not only appreciate what Captain Underpants was mining, but kind of adore it for doing so.

First Trailer for THE HOUSE Starring Will Ferrell & Amy Poehler

There was a time when a new comedy starring Will Ferrell was something of an event. Those golden years between 2004 and 2010 when Ferrell and writer/director Adam McKay would team up every other year or so to dig up comedy gold yielded some of if not the actor's best roles (of course, I'll always have a place in my heart for Stranger than Fiction, but that wasn't broad comedy and is beside the point). Since McKay has moved on to slightly more prestigious endeavors with films like The Big Short it has seemed Ferrell has more or less given up any ambition of creating anything above middle-brow comedies as his output post-Anchorman 2 has been little more than depressing (Get Hard, Daddy's Home, Zoolander 2). All of that taken into consideration, I've been a Ferrell fan since his days on SNL and became even more faithful after seeing the original Anchorman countless times in theaters at the impressionable age of seventeen during the summer of 2004. While Ferrell might not pull the crowds or excitement he once did I can still appreciate the mans presence in a comedy and when paired with the likes of Amy Poehler and the funny no matter what he's doing Jason Mantzoukas there is no reason for my interest not to be piqued. Making his feature directorial debut here is Andrew Jay Cohen who helped to co-write both Neighbors and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, both of which I certainly enjoyed. The odds are in this things favor, certainly, but as with many a comedies it's hard to tell how good this might turn out to be or just how much of a stinker it will actually be. I don't think the premise really gels here or is even outlandish enough to mine for legitimate laughs, but hopefully the script has more up its sleeve than it appears and that the cast is on their A-game. The House also stars Nick Kroll, Allison Tolman, Michaela Watkins, Ryan Simpkins, Jessie Ennis, Rob Huebel, Cedric Yarbrough, Jeremy Renner, and opens on June 30th, 2017.

LOVING Review

Much goes unspoken in Loving, but that shouldn't be a surprise given it comes from director Jeff Nichols who has given us such restrained and meditative pieces as Take Shelter and Mud, not to mention his slight venture into genre territory earlier this year with Midnight Special. Still, Loving is something of a different beast. As with most of Nichols films the multi-hyphenate again deals in its main male character working through a particularly life-altering time in his life. Whether it be a man working through understanding an illness, heartbreak, or a parents love for their child Nichols is clearly attracted to these leading male characters that carry burdens of one type or another-none of which can actually be drawn as distinctly as I've just done. In Loving, this Nichols quality is born in the form of Richard Loving as played by Joel Edgerton who is a simple man who loves a woman just as simply, but is told he can't due to the race laws that plagued the time in which he was born. What separates Loving from Nichols filmography thus far is the fact Nichols has yet to adapt a true story or any other source material for that matter for one of his films. They have all been original concepts and ideas that have allowed the writer/director his own ways/styles of telling his own stories, but with Loving he has crafted a film very much in the vein of his previous works while still seemingly allowing the genuine spirit of those who actually lived this story to come through. Nichols accomplishes this by not making up much of his own dialogue for the real-life people to say. Rather, Nichols allows much of what needs to be said to be said through the performances of Edgerton and his co-lead Ruth Negga as Mildred Loving. In doing so, Loving ends up not as an overly schmaltzy or sentimental love story or even a melodramatic courtroom drama, but instead a subtle study of how simple true love can be despite how complicated our world can make it.

SAUSAGE PARTY Review

I feel like, by today's standards, there is very little that can truly offend me or anyone else for that matter. Whether it is our culture that has desensitized us to the point of indifference when it comes to matters once kept to the privacy of people's homes or the fact we'd like to think we're more progressive for not being ashamed of the natural things humans do-there is an argument for either side. The point is that whether you are blasé or still blush when it comes to talking about sex in public the consensus, at least at this point in my life which naturally dictates my group of friends and peers being of similar mindsets, is more or less that we need to get over ourselves and stop making such a big deal over what everyone has. We should be more like the Europeans. A penis is a penis and in Sausage Party a sausage may as well be a penis. If one falls into the camp of shying away from such conversations and believe that a certain amount of mystery should still exist between people then you'll likely want to shy away from this new Seth Rogen production as well. Taking the premise from any number of children's movies (The Brave Little Toaster, Toy Story, Secret Life of Pets) where when the humans ago away the inanimate objects come out to play Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg have ran with that idea, but this time with food, which of course comes to meet a terrifying end-yes, more terrifying even than Sid. It's a premise ripe for parody and a genuinely funny idea if what you're aiming for is a twisted, dark tale that not only tells the story of what it might be like if food were living, breathing beings, but per usual also includes some musings on life and what it all means. It's grocery shopping with shades of existential analysis. Of course, that all seems a little silly when talking about a movie that has a talking douche as the main baddie, but alas-that is where we are today. Some may scoff, some may simply laugh it off, but such minds and twisted ideas have always been present in society-they just likely haven't been able to reach as large a platform as Sausage Party has and thus the discussion around every new generation's looser morals and lack of respect for what was once holy only grows louder. Sausage Party isn't wholly indicative of society today though, it's simply indicative of one aspect of society and ends up essentially being a discussion about how that society can co-exist peacefully whether one believes in keeping certain aspects and ideologies private or not.

First Trailer for Director Jeff Nichols' LOVING

A few weeks back I saw the trailer for Loving, the latest from auteur Jeff Nichols, in front of the screening I attended of The Neon Demon, but if you've seen that film you'll understand why I forgot to comment on the Loving trailer. While I was certainly happy to see the unexpected preview given I'd heard very little about the film since its Cannes debut earlier this year I wondered when it might be making its way to masses via the internet and it seems that day is today-almost two weeks after I saw it playing in theaters. While I won't go into how nice it was to be surprised by a trailer I hadn't seen before playing in front of a movie I was watching in theaters I will say that rush is certainly one of the things I miss about the pre-YouTube days. We're here to discuss the latest from director Jeff Nichols though and the trailer in question marks the directors second feature film this year. Early word out of Cannes declared the film as a strong Academy Award contender and after Focus Features picked up the film and set an early November release date it seems that is certainly the plan. The film tells the story of Mildred and Richard Loving, the Virginia couple who were arrested in 1959 for violating that state's anti-miscegenation law. They pleaded guilty to the charge, but later challenged it in court with the case eventually reaching the Supreme Court as Loving v. Virginia. It is interesting to see Nichols take on a pure love story as most of his films have dealt more with love of the less romantic kind-namely that of the love between parents and children, of the love that creates legacy, and in his other film this year, the fantastic Midnight Special, that of a love between a father and his gifted child. While most of Nichols' films have premiered in the spring only to be forgotten by the Academy by the time awards season rolls around if Loving is indeed as good as the early reviews suggest it will be nice to see Nichols finally get some recognition on a bigger scale. Loving stars Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga, Marton Csokas, Michael Shannon, Nick Kroll, Bill Camp, Terri Abney, Alano Miller, David Jenson, Jon Bass, Christopher Mann, and opens on November 4th, 2016.

Red Band Trailer for SAUSAGE PARTY Starring Seth Rogen

A work-in-progress cut of Seth Rogen‘s R-rated animated comedy, Sausage Party, debuted at Austin's SXSW festival last night and now we have the first Red Band trailer for the film. While I wasn't sure what to expect from the film given it seemed to intend to skew all that we held precious as children there are a lot of laughs in this first look and it certainly hints at a film just as warped as one would need to be to succeed as the first R-rated CG animated movie. The trailer starts off sweet enough, perfectly lampooning Disney/Pixar films before evolving into something much scarier and frankly, much more disturbing than something even Sid from Toy Story might have cooked up in his creepy ass bedroom. Sausage Party follows a group of unsuspecting weiners and meat products when they come to understand the truth about where they will eventually ending up. The film is being produced by Sony and Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures who tweeted out last night after the premiere that it was the greatest moment of her life and that she always believed the film would be Annapurna's first franchise. Also of note is the fact Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg have enlisted Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin) to compose the original music. Clearly, these guys are cutting no corners in making sure they have the best collaborators to make what is more or less a parody as close to the real thing as possible. The animation actually looks quite striking and if they are willing to go as weird and out there with this first look trailer I can only imagine what the full-length feature holds. If reactions out of last nights screening are any indication, this should be pretty great. Joining Rogen in the voice cast is Jonah Hill, James Franco, Kristen Wiig, Edward Norton, Paul Rudd, Nick Kroll, Michael Cera, David Krumholtz, and Salma Hayek. Sausage Party opens August 12, 2016.

First Red-Band Trailer for VACATION Reboot

It's hard for me to admit, but I haven't seen any of the Chevy Chase Vacation films sans Christmas Vacation as the in-laws enjoy watching that every couple of years or so when Christmas in fact rolls around. I've seen bits and pieces of the original as well as parts of Vegas Vacation on TBS or TNT at some point in the past, but never have I sat down with the intention of watching any of these straight through. That looks as if it will change this year as Warner Bros. has decided to not necessarily reboot or re-make what you would typically label as a sequel, but kind of is, as it continues the story of the Griswolds, but more by treating us to the next generation of the family that started it all. Given I don't have as much of a history with this series I likely don't get some of the references or jokes that play in this trailer, but as it states outright this is a Vacation that will stand on its own and I can only hope it proves itself right. Ed Helms is playing the grown-up Rusty Griswold who is intent on picking his family up out of its current slump by recreating his childhood vacation to Walley World. Christina Applegate is playing his wife with Leslie Mann filling the role of sister Audrey. Both Chase and Beverly D'Angelo return as Clark and Ellen for what I assume are glorified cameos while Horrible Bosses and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 scribes John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein take on their first directing gig. Vacation also stars Chris Hemsworth, Steele Stebbins, Skyler Gisondo, Nick Kroll, Charlie Day, Kaitlin Olson, Regina Hall, Keegan-Michael Key and opens on July 31st.