Waiting for Superman: Update

Paramount Pictures  is currently working on the documentary film WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN” that will open in theatres this Fall and is from the same team that brought us AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH.

It examines the crisis of public education in the United States through multiple interlocking stories and is designed to start a national conversation on both sides of the border.

The great news is,  that if we get enough pledges in our Canadian cities, First Book Canada has agreed to donate 25,000 new books to schools and programs in low-income communities across CANADA! 

Please go on this site and pledge now.    And pass along to your friends and families too.

www.waitingforsuperman.com

Each city only needs 50 pledges to show up on the leaderboard, so let's get this thing going!

Dinner for Schmucks: Movie Review

Steve Carell plays Barry, a lonely and quirky man who enjoys re-creating the greatest scenes throughout history with dead, stuffed mice, in Jay Roach's newest comedy Dinner for Schmucks. This remake of 1998 French film Le Diner de Cons pits straight-laced and uptight Tim (Paul Rudd) against himself. While attempting to receive a very important promotion at his business Tim finds himself invited to a dinner, with a twist. Each invitee brings along their own 'special' guest, or for lack of a better term, an idiot for the rest of the dinner guests to make fun of. The employee who brings the biggest idiot wins and Tim is under the impression that if he can bring the best idiot he will receive his promotion. Enter Barry, a man who Tim accidentally hits with his car; however immediately Barry stands out with his quirkiness as he was trying to save a dead mouse from being run over and also feared that Tim would try to sue Barry for hitting him. An unlikely friendship is formed as both Tim and Barry learn about themselves and about each other in this feel-good buddy comedy.

Jay Roach is the director behind the Austin Powers trilogy as well as Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers.  I definitely have to say that this film follows in the tradition of Jay Roach and juvenile humour; but it doesn't necessarily come off as bad.  The film is very absurd, so unrealistically over the top, yet at the same time I didn't seem to mind as I found myself laughing hysterically moment to moment. Yes, the humour is juvenile but it still has a very witty feel to it. One of my favourite lines in the movie is the epitome of this. Barry is talking to a group of people: "My wife left me because I lost her clitoris. I couldn't find it. I looked everywhere, but I just couldn't find it. Once I thought I found it under the couch, but it was only a chewed up piece of gum." Jermaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame also has a quirky cameo as Kieran the absurd artist who tells a story about how when he feels that his art has become 'bullshit' he rubs actual bull excrement all over the painting to make it truly art.  Each character has their own quirks and absurdities that, if indeed they were all put together in a room together chaos would ensue, all characters except for Tim (Paul Rudd.)  Unfortunately Paul Rudd is the weak link in this film as he manages to only get cast as the straight-laced uptight character, but after seeing Anchorman we all know that he can play over the top zany and be funny as well.

I'm surprised at how well the script was written by David Guion and Michael Handelman's whose only other credits to date is the Zach Braff and Jason Bateman bummer The Ex. They really bring their A-game in this film, and although the gag starts to get old after awhile, especially as it's a fairly long film for a comedy (almost two hours) the two writers continue to throw out good one-lined zingers which bring the audience back to knee slapping and clapping moments. A personal example is the day of the dinner, where Tim and Barry are going to Kieran's ranch to find Tim's girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak). The action and the laughs are starting to fade when suddenly Barry bursts out in an hilarious rant about how one can catch gonorrhea from riding the bus. Instantly any boredom that I was starting to feel was evaporated by the hilarity of the moment. Another great example is at a fairly boring lunch meeting with a Swiss businessman Barry shows up and starts talking about Switzerland and than goes off saying: 'I even know some of your language' before continuing off mumbling like the Swedish Chef from The Muppets.

This movie is honestly laugh-out-loud funny and despite mixed reviews on crowds leaving the theatre I will say that I personally liked it. It kept me laughing and entertained and Steve Carell is just purely hilarious. It's unfortunate that he'll be leaving The Office at the end of this season but I really hope he continues to make films like this.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Inception: Movie Review

Inception. The idea is to plant an idea in someone’s subconscious and allow it grow and fester until the person believes this idea to be the monumental truth, whatever the situation. To do this Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a team of the world’s greatest ‘extractors’ team up and invade Robert Fischer’s (Cillian Murphy) dreams and plant an idea that would destroy his father’s legacy. They dally around in his dreams, creating layer after layer, transcending each layer to plant a single idea in Fischer’s mind and then attempt to escape his dreams unscathed. Got it? No? A little confusing? Very confusing? Indeed. This film is 2 and half hours and continues to get more and more complicated with each passing minute. The story itself is an interesting premise but the way it’s played out is full of holes and continuity errors. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but I’ll give a few examples of little holes; there is a scene where Cobb needs to drug Fischer to put him to sleep and so he palms a sedative and drops it into a glass of water in front of Fischer. In my mind, that’s a very risky move. Although the person who poured the water (off scene) was in on the drugging plot it would have been much easier and less risky for the entire plot of the movie for that person to have drugged the water. Another example is there is a guy who is driving a pick-up van and being chased by a slew of men with guns who shoot at the van repeatedly over a 40 minute period (things happen in between). His front side driver’s window explodes in fragments like 8 times! These are little plot holes/continuity errors, but the film is made up of these!  Another huge issue that needs to be brought up is that there is no bad guy; or at least not clearly portrayed as a bad guy, the person displayed as the 'bad guy' is truly more of a victim than anything in this film. You can't have a film of such 'grandeur' without a bad guy. It made the weak ending even weaker.

The movie is so long, and a lot of the film is rehashed over again through extraneous dialogue; its imagery is pretentious and the movie is horribly predictable. By 30 minutes in I was ready for it to be over. By the time it finally ended, 2 hours later my head was just pounding. I know I seem to be hitting this movie a little harshly, but I didn’t hate it, per se. I didn’t like it… but it was far from fantastic.  Christopher Nolan is a fantastic director and he brought this story to life in a way I don’t believe any other director could, the problem, in my opinion rests in the script. For example for such a complex film the ending was too simple. And by ending I truly mean the finale; the final 15 – 20 minutes. I’ve already gone through other holes in the story and there are a lot more, I’d just rather not give away the story for those who plan on going to see it. The entirety of the film felt too much like a Matrix wanna-be minus the cool kung fu.

The acting was half decent though. Leonardo DiCaprio is a very strong actor and I enjoy seeing him in films. I can’t remember the last film I’ve seen him in that was under 2 hours though.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is another very interesting actor whose career has been very up and down, but more recently he has found his own niche and is blossoming into a fantastic actor. Ellen Page, albeit given the most boring character of the bunch, played her with enthusiasm and managed to make what could have been a very dreadful lead character slightly interesting.  I was hoping for more from Michael Caine; however his role just turned into a two scene cameo. But altogether, the acting was decent, the directing was superb… the problem with this movie rests in the underwhelming story.

If you truly want to check out this film, try it on a cheap Tuesday.

2 out of 5

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Movie Review

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice reunites Jerry Bruckheimer with Nicolas Cage for the gazillionth time and I can’t say that it gets better with age. Set in present day New York, Balthazar (Nicolas Cage), a millennium old magician who apprenticed under Merlin, continues to seek out a future apprentice who will be able to defeat Merlin’s greatest threat, an evil witch named Morgana. When it appears that Balthazar has found his future apprentice in an everyday normal guy, Dave (Jay Baruchel), all hell breaks loose in the ultimate battle for good or evil all the while using New York as a backdrop for destruction. While Dave comes to terms with his new life and battling evil he must also learn how to deal in the art of love and be able to juggle both without destroying the other.

Walt Disney Pictures has a hard-on for making PG live action films which frankly suck. Don’t believe me? I’ll list a few: Pirates of the Caribbean 3, G-Force, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Alice in Wonderland, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Race to Witch Mountain, I could go on… but you get the picture… the problem is: Walt Disney Pictures makes movies based on a formula that contain very little action, ‘witty’ dialogue which comes off as being more pretentious than actually witty, and worst of all the movies are more boring than anything. They get a slew of big name actors to walk through the film with their eyes closed and earn a big pay check just for showing up. I know a lot of people hate on Nicolas Cage a lot but I honestly like the guy; sure he’s done some crappy movies, this being one of them; but overall he’s a decent actor. Jay Baruchel has had a huge year with all the movies he’s been pumping out, and while I believe him to be a very talented actor he let his fans down with this collaboration.

Director Jon Turtelaub has worked with Nic Cage and Jerry Bruckheimer before with National Treasure 1 and 2. Both National Treasures can be considered masterpieces in comparison to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, because at least their puzzle elements kept audiences engaged in comparison to what The Sorcerer’s Apprentice will do. I was really excited to see what Turtelaub would produce after his excellent, but under-appreciated mini-series Harper’s Island, and unfortunately it was this. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: the cinematic version of literary drivel.

The writing was horrendous as well. Each and every choreographed movement spelled out through dialogue as well, yes Nicolas Cage we see you walking down the stairs you don’t need to tell us that you’re walking down the stairs while you do it. It’s really hard to figure out who to blame for the writing though as there were 3 screen story writers and 3 screenplay writers. I guess it’s a lie to say if you put enough monkeys in a room you can get them to write Shakespeare. Regardless these 5 (as one crossed between being a screen story writer and a screenplay writer) wrote a 100 minute snooze fest based on a single sketch from the late Disney musical film Fantasia. You know the scene I’m talking about, the one where Mickey plays with the mops and ends up flooding his master’s room? Yeah, it happens in this film too… I’d suggest you just leave it to the scene in Fantasia and skip this film.

1.5 out of 5