Tulip Fever

First Hit:  This film personifies the idea that having wonderful actors doesn’t mean the film will be good; this one isn’t.

How can a film with Judi Dench, Alicia Vikander, Christoph Waltz, Zach Galifianakis, Jack O’Connell, and Tom Hollander be so unentertaining? Easy have a lousy script and screenplay and a director that didn't see the problems and fix them.

An Abbess (Dench) takes in lost children and raises them to be taken into homes, be married or become an apprentice nun. One of her grown children is Sophia (Vikander) who is solicited for marriage by a wealthy Amsterdam spice trader named Cornelis Sandvoort (Waltz).

This story takes place when the Dutch in Netherlands become infatuated with Tulips. The bulbs of particular flowering types are auctioned for enormous sums of money. They are bought and sold, as commodities in a riotous bar and brothel near the canals.

Sandvoort is much older and is looking for a wife to bear him a child, preferably a boy. He’s proud of his new young wife, Sophia, and commissions a young painter, Jan Van Loos (Dane DeHaan), to paint a portrait of them.

The film shows their live as very routine and their nightly unenthusiastic sexual attempts to conceive. as time goes by, they become disheartened.

Meanwhile their maid Maria (Holliday Grainger), is having an affair with Willem Brok (O’Connell) and she becomes pregnant. By buying and selling a particular tulip, Willem makes enough money to marry Maria, however he thinks he sees Maria having an affair with the painter, Jan, and in shock and being distraught, leaves Amsterdam without saying goodbye.

The mistake was made because Sophia took Maria’s coat to hide herself while going to see her new lover the artist, Van Loos. Sophia is in love and wants to leave Sandvoort and escape with the artist. To make enough money he gets involved in the tulip options market which is regulated and controlled, in part, by the Abbess. However, the blossom is falling from the tulip market and bidding becomes stagnant. He's panicked that he cannot make enough money.

I won’t bore you with more of this plot but the intense part of the film has to do with fooling Sandvoort about pregnancies and Sophia’s very life.

Vikander did the best she could do with the part. Waltz was strong as the wealthy merchant and his “first to flower, first to fall” line was quintessential Waltz. Dench was good in her limited role as Abbess and tulip controller. Galifianakis was very good as Gerrit, the drunk who lets Jan down. DeHann was okay as the young idealist painter. Hollander was very good as well as Dr. Sorgh, the guy who helps the deception of childbirth. O’Connell was great as the man who loves and eventually comes back to his love. Grainger was fantastic in her role as maid and friend to Sophia. Deborah Moggach and Tom Stoppard wrote a poorly conceived screenplay. Justin Chadwick directed this mess. The overly dark scenes of Amsterdam, Netherlands canal districts with constant fighting, drinking and debauchery didn’t add to this film whatsoever.

Overall:  This film was uninteresting and lagged from beginning to end.

Keeping Up with the Joneses

First Hit:  At times funny but it became more ridiculous as the story progressed.

The setup is that Jeff and Karen Gaffney (Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher), with their children, are a happy well-adjusted family in suburbia. He’s a human resources manager at a large company that employees much of the town. She’s a bathroom designer. Their boys have been sent to camp for the summer. An empty house near theirs is sold to the Joneses, Tim and Natalie (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot respectively). From the beginning Karen suspects the Joneses are a bit odd and through some funny investigation, discovers they might possibly be spies.

The Gaffney’s continue their growing friendly relationship with the Joneses but their caution is rewarded and eventually the Gaffney's learn the truth about the Joneses. The rest of the film is how they team up to find out who, in Jeff’s company, is selling microchips to the enemy.

There are truly some funny bits, but then these behaviors get over played deflating the point of the behavior in the first place. The action scenes are OK but the car chase (Mercedes and motorcycles) was too long and not believable.

Galifianakis is funny and his behaviors that make him funny tend to be repeated more than needed. Fisher’s character is more interesting than Galifianakis by being inquisitive and less predictable. Hamm was solid as the undercover spy that wants his life to change. Gadot’s character was a little over done for me. More humor from her would have helped. Patton Oswalt was funny enough as Scorpion the villain. Michael LeSieur wrote a partially funny script but behaviors in scenes were repetitive. Director Greg Mottola had good actors but a script that failed to expand the story and characters.

Overall:  After watching the film, it is easily forgotten.

Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

First Hit:  One of the most amazing films I’ve ever watched.

What struck me and continues to strike me about this film was the way it was filmed. It is filmed like it all came from one camera with no edits.

Although I was amazed from the very beginning, there is a scene, where the camera is on a balcony ledge, looking up at a dark sky with a building in the background, the lights in the building change, the darkness of the sky changes to morning, and then the camera backs off the ledge moves down the building it was on and finally backs into Riggan’s (Michael Keaton) dressing room where the action picks up again.

The shot is phenomenal as are most of the shots in this film. What makes all this better is that the acting is also sublime.

This story about a man who wants to revitalize his acting career on Broadway after becoming famous as a superhero named “Birdman”. Not that the film is suppose to have a similar real life link to Keaton’s own acting life as Batman, - it does. But it is much more and deeper than this. It is about finding a place to be relevant and honest with oneself in some way.

Joining Riggan in the play he is putting on is Lesley (Naomi Watts) who has been striving her whole life to do an opening night on Broadway. Then there’s current girlfriend Laura (Andrea Riseborough) who wants to have a baby but struggles with Riggan’s inattention and is angelic in the play.

Lastly, on stage with him is Mike (Edward Norton) who is Leslie’s boyfriend and New York City stage actor supreme. His method rankles and enhances Riggan’s vision for the play. Although the story interacts with and at times becomes the story, the overall story is about Riggan becoming who he a man he likes and cares about.

Keaton is at his absolute best as Riggan and Birdman. He’s naked on the screen, we can see him. Watts is superb. Her execution of her role is perfect. Riseborough is great. The scene where she tells Riggan that she is pregnant is touchingly wonderful. Norton is beyond amazing. His command of the role is perfect. He shows just the right amount of arrogance and thoughtfulness. Emma Stone is truly a wonder. Her role as Riggan’s daughter is one of the most startling pieces of supporting work on the screen this year. Her hauntingly, desperate, and thoughtful view of the world is perfect. All of these actors gave Oscar worthy consideration performances. Zach Galifianakis as Riggans attorney and co-producer was also very, very strong. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Nicolas Giacobone wrote this amazing screenplay. Their use of words to make emotional points was spot on. Inarritu’s direction of the cinematographer, actors, and execution of the story will have him considered at Academy Awards time.

Overall:  An amazing piece of art, and that is what this film is, an outstanding and sublime piece of art.

The Campaign

First Hit:  It was very funny at times while at other times reflectively poignant of our political process.

Cam Brady (played by Will Ferrell) is a multi-elected congressman who does little in congress but loves being a member. He’s running unopposed until two wealthy businessmen Glenn and Wade Motch (played by John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd respectively) decide they want some influence in congress so that they can build a new factory in Brady's congressional district.

The kicker is that the workers will be imported from China at very low wages. It is what they call "insourcing". They select the younger odd-ball son of Raymond Huggins (played by Brian Cox) Marty (Zach Galifianakis) who they think they can easily manipulate.

Marty gives tours of his home town for a living but he’s always wanted to be seen as someone more than this, especially by his father. To assist Marty, Glenn and Wade hire a take no prisoners campaign manager Tim Wattley (played by Dylan McDermott). With Tim’s guidance, Marty becomes ruthless in his quest to win the election.

Cam is and becomes more of what most people don’t like about politicians, untruthful, unfaithful, scheming, and willing to do anything, including airing manipulative television commercials, to win. Marty is meeting him punch for punch, but learns the lesson sooner than Cam that he has to live with himself and in the final day of the campaign decides to promote telling the truth, the real truth.

The parallels to the real election process are astonishing and with our country in election mode, this film is timely. One very nice touch is having real and famous newsmen be part of the script. They are used to announce the latest news from the campaign.

Lastly, showing how both wives can and are affected by the power of publicity was very good.

Ferrell, although not my favorite actor, is pretty good in this role. Although too much Will Farrell and less of his character at times, he does carry this role, enough for the audience to see our election stupidity. Galifianakis is good but also stuck in a type casting of the same kind of person he’s played in other films. Fortunately it works here. Lithgow and Aykroyd are great as rich manipulators who point fingers at each other in front of a congressional hearing. McDermott was very amusing as the dark hired hand to make Marty a winner. Cox is great as Marty’s overly stuffed and arrogant father. Shawn Harwell and Chris Henchy must have had a lot of fun writing this script knowing this film would air during an election year. Jay Roach did a very good job of bringing poignant humor and truth by showing us the absurdity of our election process.

Overall:  This was an enjoyable film with some interesting likenesses to our current election.

The Hangover Part II

First Hit: There are no real surprises here as it is the same film as Part I with a few new twists and a new location.

When a film presents a somewhat new view on an event like the original “The Hangover” did, it is easy to get caught up and enjoy it.

The concept of “no one knowing" what happened the night before until they view the ending pictures was fun the first time around. To do a sequel means the surprise is over unless the filmmaker can create a real and new next step in the concept.

The Hangover Part II fails this in all ways. The initial scene tells us directly, “we’ve done it again”. Then the film takes us back a week and attempts to prepare us for the boys to not have the same event because they’ve taken precautions. It wouldn’t be a film if they really did and here is where this film fails.

We don’t believe any of the first part of the film because we’ve already gotten a preview that it is going to be worse than the first one because of Phil’s (played by Bradley Cooper) opening scene phone call. Mistake, mistake, mistake and because of this we have to wade through all of what we basically know will happen to that fateful phone call.

Yes some of it is funny, some of it is cute, but basically the audience has to wade through this stuff until the phone call, and then we get to see how they make things right (as we know will happen). The boys are the same boys as in the first film with Phil, Stu (played by Ed Helms), and Alan (played by Zach Galifianakis).

Additionally Doug (played by Justin Bartha) is back, but not as the one the other three misplace this time. Also back is Mr. Chow (played by Ken Jeong). There is a new person lost in this film and his name is Teddy (played by Mason Lee) who is the younger brother of Lauren (played by Jamie Chung) who happens to be the bride character this time.

Cooper is OK as the smart; level headed one of the three. Helms is fine the overwrought groom dentist who “has a dark side”. Galifianakis is OK as overly pampered rich guy who wants to be part of the “wolf pack”. Bartha has virtually no role as he did in the first film and appears only to be there for congruency. Jeong has a larger part in this film than in the past and he makes the most of the character. Craig Mazin and Scot Armstrong were the compliant scriptwriters that robbed most the script of this film from the first film by using MS Word's search and replace feature as the main writing tool. Todd Phillips might be better staying as a producer than a director as he created little in the way of engagement. Proof? The audience laughed very little and it was a ¾ full theater.

Overall: God hopes they don’t’ try to make a Part III and IV but it appears the writing is on the wall or in Word, that is.