Movie Review: The Is 40 (2012)

A slice-of-life raunchy comedy, The Is 40 is a cluttered but often hilarious adventure through the chaos and confusion of life's middle phase.

Married couple Pete and Debbie (Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann) are both celebrating their 40th birthdays in the same week. While he is laid back and inattentive, she is having trouble accepting the reality of middle age. They are dealing with the stress of raising two girls, 13 year old Sadie and 8 year old Charlotte (Maude and Iris Apatow), plus the potential financial collapse of Pete's independent music label business and thousands of dollars in missing revenue from Debbie's small boutique.

Pete's father Larry (Albert Brooks) is a financial drain, while Debbie's dad Oliver (John Lithgow) is cold and distant. But most of all the couple now mostly antagonize each other. The sexual spark is gone, he resents her secret smoking habit, she despises his inability to control his cupcake intake, and they can rarely have a moment alone together. With their arguments getting louder and more frequent and impacting the happiness of their daughters, the marriage approaches a breaking point.

With co-producer, director and writer Judd Apatow zooming into his forties, married to Mann and raising the two daughters featured in the movie, This Is 40 is a family affair. The heartfelt albeit amplified exploration of the stresses and strains of kids, parents, finances and careers experienced by the sandwich generation creates fertile ground for pointed adult humour. In search of the big laughs (often found) the film does focus more on rub points and irritations, although Apatow does provide Pete and Debbie with one idyllic sequence at a holiday resort where they rediscover each other free of all externalities.

This Is 40 sprawls out to 133 minutes, and Apatow is almost right in thinking all his ideas are good ideas, but many of them are also irrelevant sideshows. The rampant improvised dialogue often hits the mark, and is therefore allowed to run, prolonging many scenes. Melissa McCarthy shows up for an extended sequence as a rival mother at Sadie's high school. It's a hilarious foul-mouthed turn, but almost unrelated to the rest of the film. Megan Fox also gets plenty of screen time as the suspiciously wealthy enchantress salesperson at Debbie's boutique in a sideplot about employee theft that steers towards a cul-de-sac.

Albert Brooks and John Lithgow are heavyweight support players, and so both get their share of screentime, earned or not. Jason Segel also pops up in a small role as a physical trainer. But obvious mid-age flab emerges in the repetitive arguments between Pete and Debbie, the two verbally sparring in every other scene of the film's second half, often circling the same ground with new versions of the same insults as Sadie joins them in tedious three-way screaming matches.

Paul Rudd is dependable, but Leslie Mann is brilliant. In a sparkling comedic performance riding the sharp edge between exasperation and self-deprecation, Mann sets the film's tone and grabs hold of a woman's disproportionate responsibility in setting a household's pulse. With Pete often hiding in the bathroom or avoiding his responsibilities altogether, Debbie, almost despite herself, embraces the challenge of making 40 work, a mission both seemingly impossible and fraught with zingers.

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Movie Review: 17 Again (2009)

A body transformation high school comedy, 17 Again is a surprisingly breezy exploration of second chances and rediscovering priorities.

In 1989, 17 year old star high school basketball player Mike O'Donnell (Zac Efron) abandons the game of his life to be with his girlfriend Scarlet after she surprises him with news that she's pregnant. Twenty years later, Mike (Matthew Perry) is a jaded and depressed salesman, emotionally ignoring Scarlet (Leslie Mann) and their two teenagers Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Alex (Sterling Knight). After they separate and Scarlet initiates divorce proceedings, Mike encounters a mysterious spirit guide and finds himself back in his 17 year old body.

Mike re-enrolls in high school with his nerdy and wealthy best friend Ned Gold (Thomas Lennon) helping out by pretending to be his dad. Now in his kids' environment, Mike learns Maggie is being pressured into having sex by school bully Stan (Hunter Parrish), while Alex is the victim of bullying and hesitant to express his basketball skills. Meanwhile Ned sets his eyes on wooing Principal Jane Masterson (Melora Hardin), who has a policy against dating parents. Mike has to try to be a father and reclaim Scarlet's love, all while navigating the hazards of high school.

Perfectly paced at 105 minutes and riding on the energy of a willing cast, 17 Again deftly combines a middle age crisis with a wacky second shot at rebooting a stalled life in an often edgy package. The film is as restless as a high school cafeteria at lunch hour, bustling with multiple intersecting stories of parents, offspring, schoolmates and one dorky but unimaginably rich and randy friend.

The film wisely does not dwell on Mike's shock at finding himself in a teenaged body, and avoids the tired body fluid jokes. Instead writer Jason Filardi and director Burr Steers find good laughs in high-risk areas, where a dad now has to witness at close quarters the burgeoning sexuality of his daughter while fending off the aggressive advances of her classmates, and a middle-aged husband who looks like a 17 year old has to romance his skeptical wife.

17 Again refreshingly does not immediately telegraph where it wants to go, and Mike is left without instructions on how to reassemble his life. His high school redux could be about seizing the opportunity to become a basketball star, understanding the pressures faced by his kids, learning what it means to be a parent, or making amends to his wife, but succeeding at anything will not be easy with the mind of a jaded adult and the body of a hunky teen.

The film rides on Zac Efron's shoulders and he delivers a winning performance, channeling with some devious cunning the spirit of a frustrated middle aged man solving his destiny puzzle. Efron handles a couple of soapbox scenes with aplomb. Leslie Mann brings her brand of laidback sarcasm to the role of Scarlet, first quite tired of her husband's defeatism them mystified by the attractive young man hovering around her.

17 Again is teen-oriented humour that refreshingly also works for adults. The body may be jumbled, but the entertainment is smooth.

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Movie Review: The Comedian (2016)

A romantic comedy and drama, The Comedian is frequently foul mouthed but rarely funny or romantic.

In New York City, Jackie Burke (Robert De Niro) is an aging and caustic stand-up comic, well past his prime and best known for starring in the sitcom Eddie's Home from 30 years ago. His agent Miller (Edie Falco) struggles to find him work, and things get much worse when he assaults a heckler at a nostalgia night performance and is sentenced to 30 days in jail and 100 hours of community service. Upon his release Jackie is forced to borrow money from his brother Jimmy (Danny DeVito), whose wife Flo (Patti LuPone) cannot stand Jackie.

While fulfilling his community service hours Jackie meets Harmony Schiltz (Leslie Mann), who is also serving a community sentence for assaulting her cheating husband. They start a tentative friendship, she accompanies him to his niece's wedding, and he meets her overbearing father Mac (Harvey Keitel). But Harmony relocates to Florida, and Jackie is invited by his longtime rival Dick D'Angelo (Charles Grodin) to perform at an appreciation event for comedy legend May Conner (Cloris Leachman), where further surprises await.

At a running time of two hours, The Comedian is a solid 30 minutes too long. And most of these minutes are consumed by Jackie unspooling stand-up routines, most of them impromptu, but all of them exceptionally vulgar. Jackie is a deserved has-been, and his brand of humour is to insult as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Instead of making the point once and moving on, director Taylor Hackford repeatedly surrenders the microphone to De Niro as Jackie, and he proceeds to hurl an endless stream of bathroom and body function "jokes", consigning the film to the same gutter as the lead character.

Elsewhere four different script writers could not conjure up much of a story. This is bland older-man-meets-younger-woman-and-quickly-loses-her territory. The presence of stalwarts from the 1970s and 1980s in almost every role threatens to rescue patches of the film, but the combined talent of Harvey Keitel, Cloris Leachman, Danny DeVito and Charles Grodin is ultimately insufficient and they too run aground on the rocks of the mostly witless material.

Given the film's bloated length, it's remarkable how little is revealed about Jackie and Harmony, other than they are both short-tempered refugees from broken relationships and enjoy a full-throated screaming match. Perhaps they deserve each other, but these two abrasive characters cannot sustain much of a movie.

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Movie Review: How To Be Single (2016)

A celebration of the ups and downs of singlehood from the female perspective, How To Be A Single does not stray far from romantic comedy conventions.

In New York City, paralegal Alice (Dakota Johnson) forces a temporary break from her boyfriend Josh (Nicholas Braun) in order to find herself. She befriends Robin (Rebel Wilson), who revels in the party lifestyle of being single. Alice's older sister Meg (Leslie Mann) is also single and dedicated to her career as a doctor. New-in-town Lucy (Alison Brie) dates obsessively in search of a husband, and meets her dates at the bar run by the dishy Tom (Anders Holm), an expert at one-night stands.

Alice quickly regrets leaving Josh, but he no longer wants her back. She eventually starts a relationship with businessman and single dad David (Damon Wayans, Jr.). Meg decides to have a baby on her own using donated sperm, but soon meets Ken (Jake Lacy) and they start to fall in love. Lucy repeatedly strikes out in her efforts to find a soulmate, and is oblivious to Tom's growing interest. Robin stays true to herself, living up a life of fun and hard partying.

An adaptation of the novel by Liz Tuccillo directed by Christian Ditter, How To Be Single only superficially tries to be different. The title and theme suggest an intent to not make the pursuit of a partner a central premise, but beneath the thin veneer, the film is a standard a rom-com: three of the four women spend the entirety of the film obsessing about men.

The exception is party animal Robin, who really is a girl who only wants to have fun, and never melts in front of the prospect of finding a soulmate. Alice, notionally the main character, quickly gets busy plotting how to enter or re-enter the lives of various men, despite opening the film by abandoning a man who adores her. She has a late-in-the-day awakening, but not before surrendering to all the cliches about women desperate to attract and please men.

At least Lucy is painfully honest about wanting get rid of her single condition as quickly as possible. Meg is the career woman who falls victim to the sudden urge to have a baby on her own, at which point a man enters her life. Her story almost belongs in a previous generation and has been told before in films like The Back-Up Plan.

How To Be Single delivers a steady stream of decent laugh, Ditter adds a few flashy directorial touches, the four actresses are likeable enough and share the screen time, ensuring limited dawdling. But ultimately, and to no one's real surprise, being single is a foundational part of yet another shallow story about the pursuit of cute couplehood.

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Movie Review: Blockers (2018)

A high school sex comedy, Blockers adopts a girls' perspective on runaway hormones as graduation approaches. But the film cannot escape the usual tired coarse humour associated with the worst of the genre.

Teenaged girls Julie (Kathryn Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Sam (Gideon Adlon) have been friends since the first day of elementary school. Julie's mom Lisa (Leslie Mann), Kayla dad Mitchell (John Cena) and Sam's carefree father Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) have equally maintained a years-long friendship. Now the girls are approaching high school graduation and they make a pact to all have their first sexual experience on prom night.

Julie is close to boyfriend Austin (Graham Phillips), the athletically-inclined Kayla randomly chooses her chemistry lab partner Connor (Miles Robbins) as her date and potential sex partner, while Sam is close to confirming that she is gay and has a crush on Angelica (Ramona Young), but anyway sets her sights on Chad (Jimmy Bellinger) as a potential sex partner.

Parents Lisa, Mitchell and Sam uncover the sex pact as soon their daughters depart for the big night, and frantically take off in pursuit to block the girls from losing their virginity, but catching up with the enthusiastic and determined graduates will not be easy.

Directed by Kay Cannon, written by Brian and Jim Kehoe, and co-produced by Seth Rogen, Blockers adds the image of a prancing cock on top of the title on most of its promotional material. And the title both stated and implied is unfortunately an accurate reflection of the content: the film is more about the parents attempting to block the fun than the girls who just want to have fun.

The teens are the relatively more rational characters, but most of the film is occupied with Lisa, Mitchell and Hunter bickering and fretting as they throw themselves into the impossible task of keeping up with the young and horny. Some good laughs are generated by the pursuit, but the film aims really low: every bodily fluid, body part and orifice gets its on-screen moment.

Countering the pervasive and prolonged blandness of beer poured down the wrong end and parents playing sex games is a good representation of ethnic and sexual identity diversity. The perspective of young women pursuing sexual adventurism is refreshing, and despite an overall obtuse and awkward tone, the film has plenty to say about the different standard young women are held to when they wish to express themselves sexually.

The eternal chasm between generations is exposed, with seemingly cool parents caught short by their offspring transforming into adults. In Blockers the kids are alright, the adults maybe not so much.

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Movie Review: The Change-Up (2011)

A body-switch bromedy, The Change-Up finds some good laughs but also too frequently wades into vulgarity.

In Atlanta, Dave (Jason Bateman) is climbing the corporate ladder at his law firm, reasonably happily married to Jamie (Leslie Mann) and raising three kids, include newly born twins. His best friend from college days is Mitch (Ryan Reynolds), a weed-smoking generally unemployed actor drifting backwards through life while enjoying wild sexual encounters. Dave wonders if he has missed out on the fun part of being a grown-up by settling down too early, and finds Sabrina (Olivia Wilde), his paralegal at the office, extremely attractive.

One night after drinks Dave and Mitch pee into a park statue as they express mutual wishes to experience each other's lives, and they wake up the next morning with their bodies switched. They try to explain the situation to Jamie but she thinks it's a prank. With the fountain in the process of being moved and misplaced by the city, Mitch has to deal with a high stakes deal at the law firm and learning to be a domesticated dad and husband, while Dave has to adjust to having all the time in the world to catch up on all he has missed.

Directed by David Dobkin, The Change-Up applies the tried and tested formula of opposite characters experiencing life from the other side. The grass always looks greener over the fence, and here a family-and-career man changes places with a carefree live-for-the-moment guy, and the results are funny if predictable.

Dobkin and screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore manage to squeeze plenty of laughs along the way. Mitch (in Dave's body) having to deal with the duties of a father with young twin babies gives rise to excellent comic moments. Mitch also wades into the corridors of power at the law firm with a cluelessness that invites farce. Dave (in Mitch's body) has less to do in experiencing life as a jovial bachelor. His encounters with a sex-crazed woman (hiding a secret) and the sleazy underbelly of the acting industry quickly cross over into crude rather than fun territory.

The Change-Up eventually reaches the expected moments of reckoning and self-reflection, both men finding out about themselves by standing outside and experiencing what their social circle sees. But on the way to resolution, the prevailing obsession with crude humour is grinding. Dave and Mitch, in any combination of body residencies, often appear unable to converse about anything other than crass sex, intercourse and genitalia.

Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds have a blast in their respective roles, slipping into opposing personas and playing off each other with ease. Leslie Mann holds the domestic fort as the wife running out of patience with an inattentive husband, then having to navigate around the bewildering behaviour of Mitch in Dave's body. Alan Arkin gets a small role as Mitch's frequently re-marrying dad.

The Change-Up inhabits familiar territory, with the hearty laughs and tiresome juvenile antics co-existing in equal doses.

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The Movies Of Leslie Mann

All movies starring Leslie Mann and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

The Cable Guy (1996)

Last Man Standing (1996)

The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)

Knocked-Up (2007)

17 Again (2009)

The Change-Up (2011)

This Is 40 (2012)

How To Be Single (2016)

The Comedian (2016)

Blockers (2018)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Knocked Up (2007)

A crude romantic comedy, Knocked Up does not hold back on the vulgarities but also finds a few good comic moments in the story of an unwanted pregnancy resulting from a drunken one night stand.

Alison (Katherine Heigl) works at the E! television channel, and is unexpectedly promoted to celebrity interviewer. To celebrate she goes out for a night of clubbing fun with her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann), who is married to Pete (Paul Rudd) and the mother of two. Alison ends the night having unprotected sex with slacker Ben (Seth Rogen), who does nothing in life except get high and hang out with his equally useless friends Jason (Jason Segel), Jay (Jay Baruchel), Jonah (Jonah Hill) and Martin (Martin Starr). The morning after, Alison confirms that she has nothing in common with Ben and they part ways.

Eight weeks later Alison discovers that she is pregnant. She reconnects with Ben, and decides to go through with the pregnancy. They try to make it work as a couple, while Debbie and Pete face a crisis of their own. As the due date draws nearer, the stresses of the forced relationship between Alison and Ben come to the fore.

Directed and written by Judd Apatow, Knocked Up is a hit-and-miss romantic comedy, although the romance element is more of a search through the jungle of incompatibility. There are plenty of laughs to be sure, but also many jokes that fall flat and others that are overcooked. The improvisational, irreverent vibe is a welcome shot in the arm for an often tired genre, as is the unapologetic celebration of the brotherhood of offensive slackerhood. But there is only so much humour that can be squeezed out of men who waste their life on dope, juvenile sex jokes and the general pursuit of nothingness, and Knocked Up frequently bumps up against these limits.

Beneath the coarse exterior, Apatow does add thoughtful commentary on relationship dynamics. The women, through Alison and Debbie, are portrayed as more stressed but also more responsible and more caring. The men, represented primarily by Ben and Pete, are either diamonds in the rough, or just rough, seeking escape from the emotional responsibilities of adulthood through actions that avoid accountability. While the men seem to be more fun, it is the women who set the agenda and make the key decisions that strive towards meaningful happiness.

The cast is mostly made up of Apatow regulars, and they are all in, riding the wave of organic humour, soaring and crashing depending on the cleverness of the dialogue. With all the bromances in full flow, it is left to Heigl and Mann to provide any sense of organizational structure, and they deliver steady performances. The cast also includes Harold Ramis and Kristen Wiig in small roles, and a host of celebrity cameos.

Knocked Up works its way to a spectacular climax, the pregnancy reaching full term just as the reality of what it takes to achieve couplehood finally dawns on Ben, labour pain mixed with manic panic and over-the-top laughs.

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