Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

First Hit:  This film was continually filled with very funny scenes that made sense – Enjoyable.

This is one of those films I anticipated not liking very much.

Physical comedy at this level can be pressed to the point that it becomes not funny. However, this film was different. Dave (Zac Efron) and Mike (Adam Devine) play brothers who do everything together. They are party boys and the scenes of their past antics as shown in the screen, have fun intentions but ended up being disastrous and funny.

What makes this film work is the boys' relationship to each other and that each bizarre sequence is well thought out and leads to another elevated scene.

The premise of the film is that their sister Jeanie (Sugar Lyn Beard) is getting married and their parents don’t want Mike and Dave to wreck their sister’s wedding with their antics. To make them change their ways, the parents tell them they are not allowed at the wedding unless they have respectable wedding dates. They get dates however they are not just happenstance like Dave and Mike believe.

Alice (Anna Kendrick) and Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) are out of work because they show up to work drunk, are loud and obnoxious and only want to drink and have fun. Each has a different reason for their behavior and together they are almost as bad as Dave and Mike.

The girls see the guys on a TV program promoting a Craigslist ad to take dates, all expenses paid, to Hawaii for their sister’s wedding. Tatiana comes up with a plan to meet the guys and lie their way into this free trip. For them it was a vacation. The film then takes us to Hawaii and the fireworks of these four people’s antics begin. However, in the end they might make steps forward in their lives.

Efron was perfect for this role. He’s found a niche of being handsome, smart and dumb enough to be both funny and serious in this role. Devine presses his comedy a bit more than I like; however, it works well in this film. Kendrick continues to surprise me at her ability to stretch her persona. Here she compulsively lies and it really works. Plaza is very strong in this role. She’s all out and does a great job of being all out. Beard is wonderful as the sister. Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brian wrote a script full of great and funny scenes. Jake Szymanski did a wonderful job of getting laughs out of this funny script. He kept the flow going and there isn’t a dull moment or a time where I found myself saying, this is too much; it was just funny.

Overall:  This film surprised me at how it kept moving and kept itself on track in a fun way.

That Awkward Moment

First Hit:  There were some very funny moments in guy oriented film about relationships.

Three friends since college come together again because Mikey (Michael B. Jordan) finds out his wife is having an affair with her divorce attorney.

The other two Jason (Zac Efron) and Daniel (Miles Teller) work together at a book cover company. In order to help Mikey, the three make a deal to go out to bars, meet women, and make no commitment to a relationship - just have fun and get laid. Jason and Daniel have common theme with women – when a woman says “so, where is this relationship…”, these guys leave the women and the possibility of a relationship behind.

Mikey is still in love with his wife Vera (Jessica Lewis) and instead of enjoying the nights out with the boys, he pines for her. Daniel, on the other hand, uses his friend Chelsea (Mackenzie Davis) to get himself introduced to women in bars and have sex with them. However, when they say "so...", he hightails it out of there. 

This is the same story with Jason, who seems to be headstrong about not getting into a relationship, but when he meets Ellie (Imogen Poots) his world begins to be rocked. The scenes of the guys hanging out together, joking with each other, and talking about life gives insight to guys afraid of commitment and to a younger (than me) generation.

A few of the bits are out-loud funny but mostly for a guys kind of humor. For me, one of the funnier scenes was when Jason showed up to a party at Ellie's house totally dressed in the wrong kind of outfit. His vulnerability and ability to deal with his mistake was well acted and very funny.

Efron is cute in his own sort of way and appears to have a good handle on the role. Teller is equally strong in his role and has the total feel of being a jokester. Jordan is a great straight man for the other two while staying clear about his role. Poots is very engaging and it is easy to care about her character. Davis is really good as a part-time free spirit and in giving hints at her longing to be close with Daniel. She was one of the most engaging people in this film. Tom Gormican both wrote and directed this guy oriented film with the women getting what they want in the end.

Overall: I enjoyed this film and although it wasn’t great – it was fun to watch.

At Any Price

First Hit:  A very strong film about family and the pressures of living up to one's own and others expectations.

Henry Whipple (Dennis Quaid) is a head of his family farm; his dad Cliff (Red West) is still alive and pressuring Henry to make the family farm work the way he wants it to work.

Henry has two sons Grant (Patrick Stevens) the older college football star and younger son Dean (Zac Efron) who wants to be a NASCAR driver not a farmer. Henry really wants Grant to take over the farm, but Grant graduates and decides to travel the world. The undying hope that Grant will return haunts Henry.

Dean is hard headed and hates farming and his Dad’s placating ways. Henry, screws around with his old high school sweetheart while his loyal wife bears the pain of knowing but loving Henry anyway. She confronts him in one scene and in the next she’s holding his hand making a great public appearance. It is all about what it looks like.

This is the heart and key of the film, is how one is scene in public. Henry could be seething in side but he’s quick with a smile that looks real and is real – to a point.

Dean meets his fear on the race track and becomes lost. When his father covers for him and supports him for one of his stupid actions, he becomes the next generation farmer.

There are other sub-stories in this film which integrate with the whole story, one being that what goes on in Middle America’s farms reflects what goes on in bug corporations as well.

Quaid is perfect in this role as his quick smile and eyes that light up with his smile, are perfect for the man who is use to putting on fronts. Efron is very good as the troubled young man. The only thing that didn’t fit wonderfully for me, was why he lost his ability to face the fear of driving. However, his shift from rebellious young son to the future family farm leader was very good. Kim Dickens as Henry’s wife Irene was excellent. She embodied the faithful loving wife while looking past her husband’s indiscretions. Maika Monroe was wonderful as Dean’s young girlfriend. Clancy Brown as Jim Johnson, Henry’s rival Liberty seed seller, was very good. Chelcie Ross was also very good as Henry’s seed washing accomplice. Ramin Bahrani wrote and directed this very strong film that may show up at next year’s awards ceremonies.

Overall:  This film has more under the hood than shown at first blush. It asks; what would you do for your family?

New Year's Eve

First Hit: I don’t know how Garry Marshall created such a vapid film about a great subject with great actors.

New Year’s Eve is a perfect subject and so many things can or don’t happen on that infamous night of nights.

Here we follow various people and their experience of this storied night. You’ve got Tess and Griffin (played by Jessica Biel and Seth Meyers respectively) in a race to win $25K for having the first baby of the new year against Grace and James (played by Sarah Paulson and Til Schweiger respectively).

You have Ingrid (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) who is a homely, afraid and not living her life. She breaks away, quits her job and hands her to do list to Paul (played by Zac Efron) who is a bike messenger. They climb on his scooter and he, being creative, finds ways to deliver all of Ingrid’s dreams in one night.

Then there is Kim (Sarah Jessica Parker) who works all the time and is very protective of her daughter Hailey (played by Abigail Breslin) who wants to be trusted to meet up with her friends. Kim tells her "no" but Hailey steals out of her room anyway and heads down town with Kim desperately following and trying to find her.

There is Laura (played by Katherine Heigl) a caterer preparing food for the most famous and luxurious New York New Year’s Eve party where the entertainment is being provided by her former boyfriend Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi).

Also there is Claire Morgan (played by Hilary Swank) who is in charge of the famous ball drop and who is linked to a dying Stan Harris (played by Robert De Niro). There are more many more stars in this movie but to be quite frank this is what killed the film. Too many actors vying for limited shallow parts having limited characteristics and story lines..

Biel had a couple funny lines as a pregnant wife. Meyers was mediocre as Biel’s husband. Paulson was the better pregnant wife as was Schweiger as her husband. Their story was more interesting. Pfeiffer was hard to watch as she played Ingrid too close to the chest. Efron was the best of all the actors and he made the film interesting. Parker was useless to watch and was uninteresting. Breslin was OK as the teenage girl wanting to experience her first New Year’s Eve kiss. Heigl was alright as the jilted woman. Jovi was more or less just being himself, a musician. Swank was in the worst role I’ve seen her in, in quite some time. De Niro gave the worst dying person act I’ve ever seen on film. His eyes were too alert and his actions too fast to be on his death bed. Katherine Fugate wrote a painfully soft, sophomoric, and generic script. Marshall’s direction shows he needs to retire. How can one direct so many wonderful actors (and there were more that I didn’t mention) into a wastefully sentimental uninteresting film.

Overall: This film goes for the easy sentimental story and in doing so made me wish it was over sooner than later.

Charlie St. Cloud

First Hit: This was a good film which held together well.

A number of films which deal with the loss of a loved one, life after death, the space between life and death, and the dealing with death don’t do it very well.

Some films, like Sixth Sense, Heaven Can Wait and even Ghost, do it in interesting and thoughtful ways. Charlie St. Cloud can be added to this list.

The story is about a young man who, through his sailing abilities, gets a scholarship to Stanford. His single mother, Claire (played by Kim Basinger), has worked extra shifts at the local hospital to support Charlie (played by Zac Efron) and his very close younger brother Sam (played by Charlie Tahan).

Because Charlie is a good 6 years older and they have no father, Sam looks up to Charlie and Charlie reciprocates by teaching Sam what he knows about sailing, life and baseball. Charlie gets in a car accident and Sam dies in that accident. Charlie cannot forgive himself and forgoes his life at Stanford to keep the memory of his brother alive.

Five years after the accident we see him as the caretaker of the local cemetery. One evening out he wanders down to the dock and starts admiring a wonderful sailboat. He discovers that Tess Carroll (played by Amanda Crew), an acquaintance from high school, owns the boat and is preparing to sail around the world in a solo race.

Through a confluence of events of which I won’t go into detail here, he saves both their lives in different ways. What works about this story is that it is well crafted. It doesn’t waste time with over long setups. It doesn’t telegraph the ending, the script is clean and it stays on target all the way until the ending.

Efron is a good looking young man and he can act. It was great to see Basinger again; it has been a long time. Tahan is wonderful as the hell bent younger brother who is both feisty and thoughtful. Crew is wonderful and fits especially well with Efron. Ray Liotta has a small but key part in the film which was good as well. Craig Pearce and Lewis Colick wrote a good script and Burr Steers directed this film with a clear vision.

Overall: Yes it is a romantic drama between very young people and it works very well.