Stand Up Guys

First Hit:  Very enjoyable to watch acting pros work.

Val (Al Pacino) is getting out of prison after spending 28 years behind bars. His best friend and running mate “Doc” (Christopher Walken) is there to pick him up.

We quickly figure out Doc has to kill Val because he killed mob boss Claphands' (Mark Margolis) son during a job many years ago. Killing Val is about revenge. Because Doc has until 10:00 AM the next day to kill Val, Doc and Val go out and have some fun.

One of the decisions they make is to rescue the one other member from their earlier days. This third member is Hirsch (Alan Arkin) who was their driver on the jobs they use to pull. The overall camaraderie between the 3 guys is amazing as they make their way through the night doing things they want to do together.

The scenes in the diner with Alex (Addison Timlin) are precious. Yes, there are scenes that are predictable but the way Walken, Pacino and Arkin work the script, their experience as great actors’ is evident.

There are truly funny parts through the snappy and wonderful delivery of the script and it revolves around a believable heartfelt story of friendship.

Walken is superb as an aging crook who is trying to find a little peace in his life by doing right especially to his granddaughter. Pacino gives the best performance in years in this film. Arkin continues his streak of great performances in the past couple years. Margolis is solid as the unforgiving no nonsense crime boss. Lucy Punch as Wendy the Madame at the house of prostitution was a perfect choice as the daughter of the original Madame. She was witty, fun and business like all in one. Timlin was sublime as Walken’s granddaughter. Julianna Margulies plays Hirsch’s daughter Nina and makes the very most of this small role. She is what you focus on when she says her lines. Noah Haidle wrote a fun although, at times, predictable script. Fisher Stevens directed these excellent veteran actors with aplomb.

Overall:  A totally enjoyable film because you watch excellent actors doing what they do best.

Bad Teacher

First Hit: There are some very funny laugh-out-loud moments but in the end it was trite and less than satisfying.

 Elizabeth Halsey (played by Cameron Diaz) is a grade school teacher obsessed with finding a wealthy man to keep her in a particular lifestyle.

As the film starts, she has found him, however he breaks up with her and she has to go back to teaching. She drinks, smokes pot, and is scheming to find a man with money.

Coming back to teaching, her classes consist of turning on films for the kids to watch instead of actually teaching them anything. She thinks her biggest problem and the reason why she hasn’t nailed the right man is that she has small breasts, so she begins to manipulate her student’s parents for donations for classroom supplies (which she’ll keep), along with stealing items from student’s homes. With the extra money she hopes to have breast implants, catch her man, and quit teaching.

During this time she is also finds herself in competition for the affection of Scott, a long-term substitute teacher (played by Justin Timberlake) who has family money but is a nerdy spineless sort of guy. The competition is another teacher named Amy Squirrel (played by Lucy Punch) who is miss goody two shoes but also is a little twisted because something happened in 2008 (we never really find out).

Russell (played by Jason Segel) is the school’s gym teacher who has a crush on Elizabeth but, because he doesn't have money, she’s not interested in him, even though we all know he’s the best fit for her. The film is a set of scenes, which generally show how inappropriate Elizabeth’s actions are in being a schoolteacher.

The film plays off of stereotypes of kids and adults alike. We aren’t supposed to really care about anybody in this film, and here the film really succeeds. There is nothing to really care about. But there are some laugh-out-loud moments.

 Diaz does an adequate job of mugging through the non-caring school teacher bit and in the scenes where she is suppose to be sexy, she can be. But there isn’t much acting going on here. Segel is good as the steadfast easygoing guy who knows what he wants. Punch is, at times, perfect as the obnoxious obsessive tattletale snot of a teacher. Timberlake, makes a good nerd, but I couldn’t help but sense a “I’m just playing this role with a wink of an eye” sort of feeling from him. I did thoroughly enjoy his song for Amy. Phyllis Smith was perfect as Lynn the teacher who wants to be more and different than she is. She was the best actor in this film. Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg wrote this screenplay and it felt lightweight and only scraping the surface. Jake Kasdan directed this and given the screenplay I’m not sure what else he could have gotten out of it.

 Overall: Although some of the laughs are very out loud funny, this is a forgettable film.