This Is Where I Leave You

First Hit:  Moments of brilliance with moments of negating over the top behavior.

The Altman  family gathers together because the father has died. Hillary (Jane Fonda) is the widow and her 4 children come to pay their respects to their father. She states that their father wanted the children to sit 7 days of Shiva. Reluctantly the children sit in chairs that are too low to the floor and begin the process of relating to each other again.

This could have been a more powerful story with comedy woven in, however the behavior of the adult children, especially youngest son Phillip (Adam Driver), turned me off to what could have been a more compelling story. Scenes where he turns up the baby monitor, in front of all the guests, to hear his brother and sister-in-law have sex at their father’s Shiva was tasteless.

Yes, it was supposed to be funny but it came off as insensitive. Then there were the physical fight scenes – where the brothers were in fisticuffs with each other over petty stuff – just seemed to be more than needed. However, there were also great touching scenes of both the comedic and sensitive nature.

Sister Wendy (Tina Fey) hitting her brother Judd’s (Jason Bateman) former boss Wade (Dax Shepard) because he slept with Judd’s wife was priceless. Just as was the scene of the brothers smoking the pot left in their father’s jacket while in a classroom at the Jewish temple – very funny, revealing and a true family and brotherly like moment.

Bateman was effective as the guy who has lived a very controlled precise predictable life and has had it turned upside down. His character change to someone that is willing to add a bit of complication in his life was very good. Fey was adorable as the sister among 3 very different brothers. She held her own both based on the role as well as her acting strength. Corey Stoll (as oldest brother Paul) was very good. He definitely had the older responsible, stay with the family business attitude down. Driver was good, but I didn’t like the script for him. It made him seem both dumb and ridiculous and he was really neither. Rose Byrne (Penny Moore) as Bateman’s old childhood friend was fantastic. I would have liked more of her in the film. Fonda was a hit. She really had me each time she was on the screen. I’ve loved her since the 1960’s (Cat Ballou – 1965 – where I first enjoyed her dramatic and comedic turns). Shepard was strong as the affected self-absorbed Disc Jockey. Jonathan Tropper wrote an occasionally strong and often misguided script. Shawn Levy didn’t seem to have a really clear direction as to what he wanted: Drama with great laughs or a comedy with some high-school like behavior out of adults while dealing with a serious subject.

Overall:  This film had glimpses and the possibility of being much better than it ended up being.

The Internship

First Hit:  Moderately funny scenes and the real truth is the difficult story about finding jobs for anyone at any age.

When John Goodman fires Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) from their sales jobs and then tells them that they were sales “grinders”, were facing a cruel world out there, and that their prospects were minimal the film's set-up is made.

There is another segment where one of Team Lyle's members' states that more than half of today’s college graduates will not get a job that uses their education when they graduate. I’ve been on the job market as a 30, 40, and 50 year old person and I know just how hard it is. The older you get the harder it is, especially in a technology world. When 100 kids show up to Google for a summer internship in the hopes of 6 of them securing jobs at Google, it tells a huge story.

The story is about how two old salespeople use their skills at bringing people together so that the team can win. They learn who has what skills and how to support each other and help them grow. The downside, as I’ve stated before in other reviews, Vaughn is Vaughn no matter what role he takes. He’s got one character and it just shows up in different films so this film becomes predictable very early on.

Wilson, like Vaughn, plays the same character in most of his roles, although he can be more subtle in his acting. With these two as the main stars, the film lacks surprises and, for the most part, does not reveal its characters in interesting ways. If the film focused more on the second level actors it may have been more interesting. Regardless, there are funny, sad, and heartfelt moments which make it watchable.

Vaughn is just that, Vince Vaughn, no more or less. Wilson is the same thing, no surprises, and a knowable character. Nothing very interesting about these people or their characters. Rose Byrne (playing Diana) was OK in a minimal role. Aasif Mandvi (playing Mr. Chetty) was OK and a bit stereotypical. Max Minghella (playing a jerk named Graham) was good and showed the kind of arrogance this role called for. Josh Brenner (playing Lyle) was believable as a computer nerd – which he does on some movie theater promos. Dylan O’Brien as Stuart was good as the always negative to be cool guy. Tiya Sicar (as Neha, the only female on this team) was really good and deserved more script time. Tobit Raphael (as Yo Yo Santos) was wonderful as the oppressed by his strong mom nerd. He portrayed the fear and his change to finding his voice, sort of speak, perfectly. Vaughn and Jared Stern wrote this occasionally funny and adequate script but I do think there was more available for this film. Shawn Levy directed this film. There were nice moments and staging but other times it felt pressed and too made up.

Overall:  A “On Demand” film for sure and enjoyable on a Sunday afternoon or evening.

Real Steel

First Hit:  This was a fully entertaining and enjoyable film.

Yes it is much like “The Champ” in more ways than one, but so what – this film was very enjoyable.

Charlie Kenton (played by Hugh Jackman) is a washed-up boxer, who had one glorifying moment in the ring. He’s a loner traveling around in HI truck lugging robots around who fight bulls and other robots for money. He’s clearly a “live for the moment guy” looking to make a large score so that he can pay off some guys he owes money to.

But we all know in the first 10 minutes, even if he makes a large score, he’ll be back to where he is because he doesn’t plan or think ahead. One day he is served with papers that his son Max (played by Dakota Goyo), who he saw once as a baby, has lost his mother and that he has custody or has to sign over custody to the boy’s aunt. He sees this as an angle to get money and as the boy clearly tells him, “you sold me for $50K”.

The boy has to spend some time with his father before custody is handed over and we all know what happens next; Max and Charlie are alike in many ways and each learns and grows by being with the other.

There is very little that is not predictable in this film but there is nothing about this film that isn’t genuinely entertaining. The relationship between Charlie and Bailey Tallet (played by Evangeline Lilly) who’s father trained Charlie as a boxer is clearly believable. The relationship between Max and Bailey is wonderful, especially when she shows him clippings of his father boxing.

Although I thought the Tak Mashido and Farra Lemkova characters were a bit overdone there was little I didn’t like.

Jackman is perfect as the guy who cares, doesn’t care, thinks, doesn’t think, and has the physical attributes to pull off this role. He was great. Goyo was, to me, the star of this picture. He shows grace, talent and a command of the role that was wonderful. Lilly, was good as the woman waiting for her love to realize it. John Gatins and Dan Gilroy philosophically borrowed strongly from “The Champ” but they made it their own as well. Shawn Levy clearly knows how to make an entertaining film.

Overall: Although there is not real big meaningful message here, this film was simply a joy to watch.

Date Night

First Hit: This is a funny film and the actors work well together.

Tina Fey and Steve Carell work very well together. The energy between them and their relative sense of humor make them well matched as a couple in this unbelievable story of a "Date Night".

Phil (Carell) and Claire (Fey) Foster play a married couple that is very much into their family routines and roles. He works as a tax accountant and she a real estate agent and they have two children who like to wake their parents up early in the morning.

They have regularly scheduled date nights which lack excitement as the go to the same restaurant, eat the same food and return early for, maybe, some sex. Fearing they might be losing the fun aspect of their relationship, they decide to go to the city and have dinner at a hot new restaurant.

Without a reservation they are shoved off to the bar to wait for an open table by a sarcastic maître-de. When the “Tripplehorn’s” don’t show up for their reservation Phil decides to say “we’re the Tripplehorn’s" and get seated. Some gangster types usher them outside and before they know it, the Foster’s are caught up in a extortion ring.

Carell is good as the husband that feels a little controlled by his more than competent wife. Fey is very strong as Carell’s wife and has a way of creating wonderful humorous situations without making it look pressed. Her glances, reactions, and physical actions are in sync and gives her acting the appearance of being easy. Mark Wahlberg plays a studly, unshirted former client of Fey’s who assists the Fosters in their plight. His demeanor and smooth acting were perfect for the part. And an uncredited Ray Liotta as Joe Miletto the bad ass gangster is good. Shawn Levy is very good at bringing out the natural comedic flair of both Fey and Carell.

Overall: This was a funny film although the premise was unrealistic.