Movie Review: Fun With Dick And Jane (2005)

A comedy about the dark side of unchecked capitalism, Fun With Dick And Jane offers some good laughs but is often more juvenile than biting.

A communications manager with giant corporation Globodyne, Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) and his wife Jane (Téa Leoni) are living the good suburban life. Chief Financial Officer Frank Bascombe (Richard Jenkins) unexpectedly promotes Dick to Vice President, and he then gets to meet Chief Executive Officer Jack McCallister (Alec Baldwin). 

But Globodyne is on the brink of financial collapse. The company suddenly goes bankrupt, Dick is embarrassed on national television, the pension plan is raided and the employees left destitute, while McCallister makes off with a fortune. In a tough employment market Dick and Jane struggle to find work, and in desperation resort to petty crime to avoid losing their house. But Bascombe re-emerges, along with an opportunity to redress the balance.

A lightweight comedy inspired by Enron-style corporate implosions, Fun With Dick And Jane updates the 1977 Jane Fonda/George Segal film with the same fair to middling outcome. Essentially a star vehicle for Jim Carrey to unleash his usual physical comedy and facial expression antics, here he is subdued enough to fit into the corporate milieu. Director Dean Parisot leans heavily on the decent chemistry between Carrey and Leoni as the couple sinking in financial quicksand, while writers Judd Apatow and Nicholas Stoller surround them with modestly entertaining if never sparkling content.

The highlights include newly-minted VP Dick Harper's live television interview as he is caught flat-footed by Globodyne's stock plunge, amplified later by rival corporate bros humiliating him as a legend. And irrelevant to the central plot but helpful in building empathy, Dick and Jane strengthen their bond after both earning bruised and bloated faces in their desperate attempts to find jobs. The frantic final caper in a posh bank is also well-handled.

But otherwise the content spreads thin over the short 90 minutes and several scenes are stretched into filler territory, including eye-rolling shots of a car skidding on wet pavement and a dragged-out footrace to an interview line-up. And this being a Carrey comedy, the humour often veers into cartoon territory at the expense of any attempts at witty satire.

Alec Baldwin and Richard Jenkins add acting heft in the key support roles, although both are stifled by the material. Dick and Jane do have fun, but no one gets to stretch.



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Movie Review: Deep Impact (1998)

An end-of-the-world disaster thriller, Deep Impact builds to impressive heights of emotion in the story of a massive comet hurtling towards Earth. The film benefits from a generally somber attitude, but also tries to cram in too many stories at once.

Teen-aged amateur sky watcher Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood) and astronomer Dr. Marcus Wolf (Charles Martin Smith) discover a new comet bigger than the Himalayan mountains on a collision course with Earth. Wolf dies in a car crash before he can publicize the discovery, and government officials keep the impending Extinction Level Event secret for months to avoid panic while a response is formulated. But when news reporter Jenny Lerner (Téa Leoni) stumbles onto the story, US President Tom Beck (Morgan Freeman) reveals the Biederman-Wolf comet's existence to the public and announces that the US and Russia have jointly constructed the Messiah spacecraft, designed to land on the comet and knock it off course by detonating nuclear warheads 100 metres below the surface.

The Messiah crew includes Captain Spurgeon "Fish" Tanner (Robert Duvall) and pilot Andrea "Andy" Baker (Mary McCormack). Despite their best efforts, the explosion only manages to split the comet into two pieces, the smaller labelled Biederman and the larger Wolf, and both remain on a collision course with Earth. The President announces a plan to safeguard one million Americans in purpose-built survival caves in Missouri. Before the day of impact, Jenny has issues to resolve with her divorced mother Robin (Vanessa Redgrave) and father Jason (Maximilian Schell), while Leo tries to save his girlfriend Sarah Hotchner (Leelee Sobieski) and her family.

Released within months of the similar Armageddon, Deep Impact is the more cerebral, less jingoistic of the two. This turns out to be both good and bad. Directed by Mimi Leder, Deep Impact tackles the end-of-the-world premise with a high degree of proficiency and from multiple angles, but fails to fully engage in any of them. The void left in the absence of simplistic heroes is filled with a rather humdrum collection of people anticipating the end, but not in any position to do anything about it.

The President addresses the public in a series of this-is-going-to-be-bad-but-we-have-a-plan speeches, Morgan Freeman at his tenderly assertive best, but with each address getting progressively less comforting until he all but says "OK, now panic". A bit better is the story of news reporter Jenny Lerner, the earth's impending annihilation bringing into sharp relief the dynamics between her and her parents. Jenny's domestic troubles are typical, and her story provides the necessary perspective on what constitutes a real crisis and whether it's ever worth nursing a grudge against loved ones. Téa Leoni is asked to carry most of the earth-based portions of the film and does well, her deer-in-the-headlights demeanour upon being thrust into the anchor's chair ringing particularly true in the be-careful-what-you-wish-for tradition.

The puppy love sub-plot between comet discoverer Leo and girlfriend Sarah is inserted to attract the younger demographic, and while Elijah Wood and Leelee Sobieski are appealing, they get little to do except run around and change their mind a lot.

Up in space, the film does gradually and almost reluctantly work its way to finding some heroes. The initial interaction between Duvall's Fish and the much younger rest of the Messiah crew is awkwardly and implausibly handled, but then Fish is allowed to hit his stride, the wise head showing the cocky youngsters how its done, and he emerges as one of the more memorable characters to confront the crisis.

As the end nears and the excellent special effects of the eastern seaboard getting destroyed ramp-up, Leder succeeds in scaling some genuinely intense emotional peaks, helped by James Horner's score. Jenny's journey to forgiveness finds a quite terrific ending on a secluded beach, while Leo and Sarah deal with a reunion, a separation and a new responsibility all at once. Meanwhile up in space the Messiah crew stumble onto an unlikely course of action, triggering a series of transmissions back to earth that fill the control room with tears. With the comet impact about to unleash the mother of all tsunamis, things do get moist all over.

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Movie Review: Tower Heist (2011)

A rather bland revenge caper comedy thriller, Tower Heist assembles a large cast and then wastes it on an underdeveloped story. There are moments of fun to be had thanks to the star power on display, but the overall package is a disappointment.

In downtown Manhattan, Josh Kovaks (Ben Stiller) is the manager of The Tower, the most prestigious high rise residential address in the city. His crew includes veteran doorman Lester (Stephen Henderson), the tentative desk clerk Charlie (Casey Affleck), housemaid Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe) and rookie elevator operator Enrique (Michael Peña). They all work for General Manager Mr. Simon (Judd Hirsch), looking after every need of the very rich tenants.

The most famous and wealthiest resident is billionaire Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), an investment fund manager who occupies the lavish penthouse, complete with Steve McQueen's bright red Ferrari as a centrepiece decoration. Without warning, Shaw is arrested for stealing $2 billion. Kovaks and his team had all their pension money invested with Shaw, and they lose everything. With FBI agent Claire Denham (Téa Leoni) leading the investigation into Shaw's business dealings, Kovaks assembles his colleagues as well as bankrupt Wall Street investor Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick) and common criminal Slide (Eddie Murphy) to plan a daring theft of Shaw's secret safe, located in a wall enclosure within the penthouse.

Tower Heist has shiny outside packaging, but a listless core. The film looks slick and sounds great, the bass-and-horns theme courtesy of Christophe Beck packing plenty of promise. The talented array of stars do their part to help make the experience half-way watchable. Stiller throws himself into the role and manufactures a decent level of conviction, while Broderick hits the better comic tones with a brooding turn as an investor chewed up and spit out by Wall Street's merciless carousel.

Murphy is in good crude form, recalling the edgy, urban and profane Murphy of old as the one true thief among wannabe crooks, although his scrappy street-level experience is ill-suited to a high-rise heist. Alda (finding his inner Bernie Madoff), Affleck, Peña, Leoni, Sidibe and Hirsch ensure that every corner of the tower is occupied by familiar faces.

With most of the budget invested in the cast and the needlessly complicated backdrop of the Thanksgiving parade, little is left for a decent script, and Tower Heist quickly falls apart. The break-in plan is half-baked to the point of emerging from the oven as a sloppy mess, and the attempts at generating some heat between Josh and Claire misfire, although Leoni sparkles in one scene where the FBI agent disappears behind the fog of alcohol and the woman comes to the fore.

Once director Brett Ratner moves the action to the execution phase, all the tension gets caught up in that red Ferrari, and the film devolves into a single silly gag, over the top, outside the building and beyond the bounds of reason. Tower Heist gets stuck in the elevator, with great company but going nowhere.

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Movie Review: Spanglish (2004)

A thoughtful exploration of parenting through the immigrant experience prism, Spanglish is a tender comedy brimming with a frothy human spirit.

The film is presented as an essay by Cristina Moreno, as she applies to enter Princeton University. Cristina names her mother Flor as her hero, and the film is a flashback recounting their story. In Mexico, Flor (Paz Vega) was abandoned as a young mother, and took it upon herself to cross illegally into the US with her daughter Cristina to seek a better future. After six years of confining herself to the Los Angeles Hispanic community, Flor still knows no English but strikes out into the world of the white people to try and make more money to better support Cristina (Shelbie Bruce), now almost a teenager. Flor finds employment as a housekeeper and nanny with the Clasky family.

Deborah Clasky (Téa Leoni) immediately takes a liking to Flor, despite having recently been laid off and still suffering through an emotional crisis. Her husband John (Adam Sandler) is a chef with a growing reputation. They have two children, Bernice (Sarah Steele) and George. Bernice is a bit pudgy, a condition that just adds to Deborah's stress levels and to the strain on John and Deborah's marriage. When the family moves into a beachfront home for the summer, they invite Flor and Cristina to stay with them. Deborah starts showering Cristina with affection, much to Flor's consternation, while John and Flor find plenty of emotions in common, despite the difficulty of communicating across a language barrier.

Written and directed by James L. Brooks with an eye to mixing societal commentary with romance and some humour, Spanglish succeeds in its delicate balancing act. The film unfolds with a gentle rhythm, the three main adult characters orbiting each other in search of emotional fulfilment, seeking happiness as parents and craving, in their own way, success for their children.

Flor, Deborah, and John are each facing major challenges, and they will complicate each other’s lives while simultaneously strengthening their dependencies. Deborah’s nervous breakdown reduces her ability to function as a wife and mother, as she is wrapped up in low self-esteem. She also latches on to Cristina as a more perfect surrogate daughter, seemingly smarter than Bernice and not suffering through the weight issues. Flor depends on Deborah for her livelihood, but quickly learns to resent the influence of her employer on Cristina.

Meanwhile, John is trying to survive his wife’s meltdown and the distraction of his growing professional reputation as a leading chef. The connection between Flor and John, both emotionally abandoned, is warm and genuine, and handled with an unusual sensitivity that allows the flame of love to flicker to life at its own magical pace.

The language barrier and the immigrant divide between Flor and the Claskys is used as a clever device for some pointed humour and social observations. Brooks finds a terrific peak in a scene where John and Flor argue while Cristina provides animated translation services. The degree of mutual dependency is emphasized by the need to tolerate the fragmented communication channels, while Flor’s willingness to learn a new language highlights the commitment of newcomers to their children’s success in the new world.

Adam Sandler plays John with a welcome laid back comfort, convincing as a man trying to keep his household together despite a disintegrating wife. Téa Leoni is all-in as Deborah, finding the fine line where stress and functionality rub against each other. Leoni plays Deborah as an often normal woman, but suffering from worrisome episodes of excessive and impulsive behaviour triggered by her emotionally fragile state.

Paz Vega steals the film as Flor, the heroine of the story and the central focus of Cristina's life. Vega learned her English along with her character on the set of the movie, and conjures up a performance of resolute courage. Cloris Leachman adds a dose of comic relief as Deborah’s mom and a former music pop star, abandoning her drinking when it’s time to become a parent again.

Warm and heartfelt, Spanglish is a treat in any language.

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Movie Review: The Family Man (2000)

A modern Christmas fairytale, The Family Man is a fable about what matters in life. Presenting a stark contrast between material wealth and a loving family, there is no doubting where the film's heart resides, but two excellent central performances and a sharp script collaborate to elevate the simple story into a charming experience.

In a prologue set at the airport, Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage) and Kate Reynolds (Tea Leoni) are young and very much in love. He is about to board a plane to London for a one year apprenticeship to start his corporate life. Worried that he will never come back to her, she wants him to stay so that they can proceed to start their life together. He boards the plane, and their relationship ends.

Thirteen years later, Campbell is an extremely wealthy New York mergers and acquisitions executive, living the dream bachelor life in a sleek apartment. Campbell believes he has everything he needs in life, including a Ferrari and gorgeous bed partners, but otherwise his life is his work: he forces his team to work on Christmas Eve and calls a meeting on Christmas Day. An unexpected phone message from Kate and a surreal encounter with a burglar (Don Cheadle) trigger a timeshift in Jack's life: he is transported to a messy New Jersey home, and gets to experience the alternate destiny that he abandoned at the airport: married to Kate, he works as a tire salesman and they have two kids and a big dog, living the prototypical suburban life with a mortgage and a minivan. Jack needs to learn to survive in his new surroundings while recalibrating the value of his life's decisions.

Tea Leoni is the figurative heart of the film, and delivers one of her strongest screen performances. Just by being herself, Kate needs to unwittingly convince Jack that his life of New York riches amounts to little. Leoni nails the natural endeavour of the resourceful wife and mother, unaware of how attractive she is, sacrificing a career for her family and able to flood her environment with genuine affection. Jack Campbell is the model Nicolas Cage role, a man struggling with destiny's quirkiness and gradually realizing that he is a lot less in control than he ever anticipated.

Director Brett Ratner sprinkles just a bit of fairy dust on The Family Man, enough to provide the occasional reminder that Christmas is the time for life's magical contemplations. A bicycle's jingly bell, snow flakes at key moments, and serendipitous encounters flutter in and out of Jack's life as he gradually learns that his wealthy corporate life is, in fact, desolate. Ratner delivers a stunning punctuation mark when Jack returns to his apartment after living the lovingly cluttered New Jersey life: the same condominium that was stylish and expensive now just looks bleak and bare.

The Family Man mixes a warm heart with gentle humour. It may be a tad predictable, but it carries a lovingly tinged message worth reliving.

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Movie Review: Bad Boys (1995)

Lots of explosions, lots of bullets, lost of car chases, lots of attempted one-liners, lots of nonsense. Ho hum.  Bad Boys is action without soul, polished enough to be tolerable but utterly and immediately forgettable.

A ruthless criminal gang breaks into a Miami police station and takes off with millions of dollars in seized heroine. It's a massive embarrassment for the good guys, and narcotics detectives Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) are called in to track down and retrieve the stolen drugs. Burnett is a family man, Lowrey is a womanising bachelor with an inherited fortune, but despite their differences they are partners and best friends.

Their investigation leads them to Julie Mott (Tea Leoni), who has witnessed the criminals enjoying the drugs and killing her friend Maxine. Burnett and Lowrey need to keep Julie safe as they track down Fouchet (Tcheky Karyo), the grim-faced, always angry leader of the bad guys.

The actors go through Bad Boys fully knowing that they are in a mindlessly gratuitous action movie, and not even pretending otherwise. People get killed, shot, battered, and bloodied, but Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as Lowrey and Burnett are too cool to care, display any emotion or pause to take stock: no, they are too busy trading insults and trying to think up the next glib comment. It is almost ironically left to Tea Leoni to inject any thoughtfulness into Bad Boys. Although her primary purpose in the movie is to wear ever shorter skirts in each successive scene, Leoni at least attempts to display some minimal fear, anger, frustration and playfulness in among the ceaseless carnage.

Bad Boys was director Michael Bay's feature film debut, and he imports his expertise in commercials and music videos to the big screen, and forgoes all other elements required to make a good movie, such as a meaningful script, human drama, acting, and polysyllabic dialogue. The reincarnation of Michael Winner with bigger budgets, Bay is all about placing the camera to get the best angle for the upcoming explosion. He washes the film with resplendent colours, making the best use of Miami and ensuring that the screen always looks gorgeous. Bad Boys is a slick two hour music video, an exercise in parking the brain and indulging the base instincts of the juvenile eye.

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Movie Review: Ghost Town (2008)

A small, low key romantic comedy that borrows extensively from many other movies and achieves very little that is new. Ghost Town is only enjoyable in the sense that it is inoffensive, steers clear of cheap laughs, and at least aims for the slightly cerebral.

Ricky Gervais (from the original British version of The Office) is Bertram Pincus, a dour dentist who has all but given-up on any positive aspects of humanity, and is self-satisfied going through life alone and with an air of over-bearing pessimism.

After briefly dying on the operating table, Pincus wakes up with the ability to see and interact with ghosts who are all around us, hanging around the living due to various unresolved pre-death issues. The ghosts in Ghost Town are thankfully not scary or ugly, just normal looking and slightly pushy folks waiting for help. Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear, strangely the most likeable thing about the movie) is the pushiest among them, having been literally run over by a bus without resolving his marriage issues. He wants Pincus to sabotage the relationship between his widow Gwen (Tea Leoni) and her new hunky boyfriend.

What follows is a predictable relationship between Gwen and Pincus, which is as unbelievable as the quick transformation that Pincus subsequently zips through to become a caring human being. The emotional evolutions are abrupt and handled with a dramatic shortage of subtlety, thanks to the predictable script (David Koepp and John Kamps) and bland direction (Koepp again).

Gervais tries hard but his character is given precious little to work with, while Tea Leoni has to make us believe that she will fall for a rude dentist when her current boyfriend looks like most women's white knight. She also has to make us believe that she is a paleopathologist. None of it rings true.

A movie that passes the time, but not necessarily time well spent.