21 Jump Street (2012)

I'm operating under a new theory now: I used to meticulously study each and every film that was about to come out. I would watch all the new trailers released on Apple Trailers, I would rewatch them the day the films came out to remind myself what was out there, and I would look up the Meta Critic and Rotten Tomatoes reviews to find out if any of the films were worth going to. Believe me, if I film I was highly anticipating got universally bad reviews (like The Golden Compass nearly 5 years ago), I changed my mind about seeing it.

I'll still look to the critics to tell me what is good and bad, and dodge those films that get reviled. That will never change. But what I'm trying to do is go into films with as little knowledge about them as possible. To not watch trailers or read reviews (which is where Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic come in handy, since you don't need to read reviews). I'll never avoid trailers fully: I still love seeing them before a film in the theater, and there are some great trailers out there that spoil little and are almost works of art in their own right (see The Social Network trailer). But having no expectations, going into a film knowing nothing, can radically alter how you enjoy something.

For instance, I didn't know anything about 21 Jump Street. Not that it was a TV show in the late 80s that gave Johnny Depp his career start, nor what any of the jokes are. Ignorance is bliss, they say, and with this film thats especially true. Which is why I'm going to sum it up for you now. If you haven't see the film, I'll tell you this: go see it, then come back and read my review. I'm not spoiling anything, but gosh would be hypocritical of me to not tell you up front what you want to know and instead make you learn about the film.

Jonah Hill (slimmed down and looking like Slim Shady in the prologue) and Channing Tatum play opposite ends of the High School spectrum, and you can probably figure out where they fit. Fast forward seven years and they are best pals, united in Police Academy because Hill had the brains and Tatum had the brawns. After they flub their first arrest by forgetting to recite the Miranda Rights (you know, the one that starts out with You have the right to remain silent, you have the right to be an attorney), they are reassigned to what their captain aptly describes as, "A revised program from the 80s, which is what the people in charge do when they run out of ideas." If you find that line funny, you're in for the rest of the movie.

Their base of operations is at 21 Jump Street, where Ice Cube plays a foul-mouthed, angry police Captain who cannot believe how dumb his charges are. The purpose of the program? To send young-looking officers undercover to High Schools to bust drug rings ("You some Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus-looking motherfuckers," Ice Cube helpfully explains). The movie then takes the opportunity to lampoon Hollywood High School films, where all the stars are usually in their late 20s.

I could go on and on about the drug that is infecting the High School, how Tatum and Hill wonderfully play off of each other and end up in role reversals (Tatum suddenly the nerd, Hill in the cool crowd). But what it really comes down to is did I laugh? Was this movie funny? And the answer is a resounding yes. The movie is wall to wall with jokes that don't always make sense, which is explained by the presence of co-writer Michael Bacall (who wrote Scott Pilgrim, also wall-to-wall with jokes). These movies can seem a bit exhausting, and while 21 Jump Street could have lost five or ten minutes it still breezes by, only being stilted by boring action chases (which still provide some laughs).

The film also looks at High School cliques with an almost fresh perspective. So many High School films see it as a division of Cheerleaders and Jocks and Nerds. But its so much more complex then that. There are people who cross the lines, who shade in the areas. In this film, the cool kids care about the environment and don't bully people. Hell, one of them happens to be gay, but its not made into an issue. This perplexes Tatum and Hill, who came from the High School Hollywood feeds us, and though the nerds are still seen as little more then sad virgins, at least the film made an effort to shake up one department.

So see this film already! Sure the story may be slight, and the jokes may not always make sense (Korean Jesus), but it keeps laughing, and somehow makes you care for the characters. Its sad that something like this is rare for Hollywood to put out.

The Other Guys (2010)

The Other Guys was chugging along nicely, a rather stupid action-comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, but really what did I expect? Then the movie ended, and the most surprising thing happened: the end credits began displaying graphs, charts, and data on the bailout, CEO spending, CEO salaries, Ponzi schemes, and the like. For a minute, I wondered whether The Other Guys had been a smart satire on America's economy. Then I realized nope, Adam McKay just thinks throwing up a bunch of info like that will make us think the movie was smarter then it really was.

But really, it isn't half-bad. It opens with Sam Jackson and Dwayne Johnson being super-macho stereotypes of themselves, which is pretty funny, and Ferrell is actually hilarious in his early scenes as a subdued worker. It's nice to see him restrained and not the pompous idiot of Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Semi-Pro, or Step Brothers. Mark Wahlberg is less funny as Ferrell's partner, but he still does a good enough job. Much of their chemistry in the beginning is what makes the movie fun (a debate over tunas versus lions is the film's best moment).

But then the film becomes embroiled in its plot, and then the film becomes less inspired. Ferrell starts becoming hyperactive again, and the movie hits its lowest points when Eva Mendes comes onscreen. This isn't because Ms. Mendes is a bad actress (she was exceptional in Bad Lieutenant), but because the joke around her character is totally miscalculated. Ferrell completely disregards her beauty and mocks her constantly, yet hot women are still attracted to him. She is given terrible lines as well ("I show him my breasts every morning and tell him, 'these are waiting for you.'"), and overall is squandered.

Then there's the plot, which involves Steve Coogan carrying out a Ponzi-ish scheme, I guess. He keeps borrowing money from investors with no real intent on paying them back. What is particularly odd about this film is how Ferrell and Wahlberg spend most of their time protecting Coogan from the villains, when in the end, he is put behind bars and is himself the main villain. It's funny to have the heroes stake so much for the villain.

Finally, the action itself is less-then-inspired. I can tell this film was influenced by Hot Fuzz, the far superior action-comedy, and that's because that film had style. This film lacks any sort of style and is dead in the water. Helicopters fly around and car chases ensue, but there's really no awe coming from them, and in the end you are left yawning.

So, in the end, this picture fails because apparently it wants to be a satire on the economy and big business, when really, it is anything but.

MacGruber (2010)

Spoilers. But do you really care?

The fact that Will Forte, John Solomon, and director Jorma Taccone took a one-joke sketch from SNL and turned into a feature-length movie that is only half-bad is admirable. The original sketch spoofed MacGyver, a show I'm not terribly familiar with, and locked Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, and a random guest star in a non-descript location while the threat of a bomb going off was imminent (Wiig's only duty was to remind MacGruber of the countdown). The sketches are all about a minute long, are pretty funny, and always end with the bomb exploding and everyone dying.

Val Kilmer plays the villain of the film, Dieter von Cunth, and once you hear that name you can pretty much telegraph the trajectory of the rest of the picture. The film is filled with wall-to-wall raunch, some of it funny, most of it not. MacGruber is called into action when Dieter steals some missile, and he rounds up his old team of "Killer-Stoppers," which mainly consist of WWE wrestlers. Their fate is one of the movie's inspired moments, and forces MacGruber to recruit the much-less-80s Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe), and his old flame's friend, Vicki (Kristen Wiig, in the same role as the show).

The movie gets some mileage out of the joke that MacGruber's accomplishments are a bit exaggerated. He attempts to make a homemade grenade, which fails to work, and refuses to use guns only because "He never learned how." When he does finally fire a semi-automatic, he does so with glee, and wonders why he always bothered with those intricate gadgets in the first place.

But besides being a buffoon, MacGruber is also somewhat of a psychotic, disturbed man. A fellow driver insults his ride, and MacGruber memorizes the license plate of the offending vehicle. He even writes the plate down over and over in a steno book, and whether the audience is supposed to find this funny or disturbing is a bit of a mystery, though I assume it was supposed to be comedic. It was a bit more disturbing to me. When Mac finally finds the car, he burns it, and I guess we're supposed to feel good for him, but I didn't.

The origins of Dieter and Grubs' rivalry is also a tad more disturbing then you would expect. They were all friends in college, when MacGruber stole the woman Dieter was in love with and talked her into having an abortion (the apple of their eyes is Maya Rudolph), so Dieter retaliates by blowing up Maya Rudolph and their wedding. It's a backwards story, and I admire the filmmakers somewhat for making MacGruber not totally relatable, but he's still one messed-up guy.

But the movie's jokes are also hit-and-miss: MacGruber's technique of running around naked with celery sticking out his butt to distract guards is amusing, but not funny or worth repeating. And the sex scene between MacGruber and Vicki and then later the ghost of his dead wife are more annoying then funny (he makes love while hee-hawing), or the joke would be funny if it weren't played out so long.

But I also don't think the movie embraces its ridiculousness enough, and instead feels like its being restrained by its action-comedy quota. Wayne's World and The Blues Brothers are two terrific comedies that totally embrace absurdity, but also give us characters we more or less love, despite the fact that they're not really honorable. MacGruber isn't lovable, and instead can't seem to fully explore the realm of the absurd.

Part of the reason this movie flounders is that it feels like these men haven't grown-up at all. Immaturity is fine, but the script feels like it was written by a 13-year-old, though I firmly believe it was written by the 13-year-old spirits of the men who loved the 80s action movies they are spoofing, just injecting it with things their inner 13 would have found hilarious. That's fine, except this movie is rated R, and is a hard R, so adults will mostly come to see this (and frankly, 13-year-olds probably shouldn't. 14 is ok). Most of them will leave disappointed, but the few whose 13-year-old spirit still lives on in them will love it. I guess that means mine is dead.

Avatar (2009)

It's nice to know that in this world there are still filmmakers who know how to make a solid action movie. Who know that an action movie isn't really about the action at all, but about the characters who carry out the actions. That Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) become completely identifiable and sympathetic in this movie is one of the only real reasons it works.

The film that took 12 years for Cameron to bring to us, Avatar, has certainly been analyzed as a Dances with Wolves, Smurfs, and Ferngully hybrid, and if you like boiling movie's plots down to essentially what they resemble, then this a fair assessment. But Cameron's picture succeeds because it takes what could have been a very silly story, and makes it believable. Sure, this movie is ridden with clichés, and every moment is predictable, but Cameron spends so much time painting the world of the Na'vi and their indigenous land that you fall for them as Jake Sully does.

The movie takes place some odd years in the future (it is never said, though keen eyed people probably picked up on the dates on video diary screens), where the natives of the planet Pandora reside upon a mineral source that is worth lots of money. So, naturally, corporate fat cats want to buy the land from the people and mine the shit out of that stuff. Problem is, the natives won't budge.

Sully is a paraplegic, and is assigned to Pandora when his brother is killed. A rather expensive avatar (Na'vi look-a-likes) was made for him, and since Sully shares the same Genome, he is the perfect money and time saving candidate for the job. Soon, he inhabits the Na'Vi's body and goes to learn about their people.

A lot of the characters in this movie are more caricature then character; Stephen Lang plays the evil Colonel, though really he is just doing his job. Giovanni Ribisi is the above mentioned fat cat, and Michelle Rodriguez plays the only soldier with enough of a conscious to decide killing innocent blue people is wrong. And on the Na'vi side there are the old, wise clan leaders and the hot head warrior that challenges the outsider.

But the movie stands above most other genre pictures because it marvels at the scenery and beauty that is surrounding them. 60% of the film is CGI, 40% live action, and you really can't tell the difference most of the time from scene to scene. The settings, the small creatures, and plants, trees and textures are so pain-stakingly detailed that they absorb you. The world of Pandora is unfolded to us as it is to Sully, and never overloads you with information.

I was skeptical of this movie, but by the time Sully tames a pterydactol thingy and flies through the air, I was sold on the movie and completely exhilarated. At that point, my brain took a backseat and I just drowned in the imagery and action at the end. I fought and fought the movie, and the movie deservedly one.

Maybe most surprising about this film is how patient it is. This is not an action heavy movie; there are few scenes at the beginning when local wildlife attack the naive Sully. But the Colonel doesn't roll out the artillery until the end, and the final action sequence is so epic it makes up for the "lack" of action and shooting earlier. Really, that is so rare for a movie these days to actually make its audience wait for the big battle at the end.

What's even more remarkable is that this movie is a blockbuster hit now, and is not based on anything concrete. Obviously it is an update of our genocide on the Native Americans way back when, but there is no comic book, novel, or anything else that this was based on. All the characters came from Cameron and his crew, and originality like that is about near impossible to find in Hollywood. Of course, the script could have been injected with a shot of originality too, but the creatures make up for that.

A note on the 3D in this picture: it is quite unlike what I have seen before. It doesn't call attention to itself and make things pop out of the screen to hit you. Instead, it just amplifies the scenery and creates more depth to what is going on. I've become less of a fan of 3D in the past year due to the insane amount of films that come out in the format, but here, the 3D doesn't drive the movie, it only serves to enhance everything. That being said, I also saw this in IMAX, and was quite confused as to why the image didn't fill the screen; I expected bars on top and bottom, but there were also pillars on the sides, so the image didn't stretch across the whole screen. Was it like that at other IMAXes? (and I mean real IMAX, not bullshit new IMAX).

This movie has set the bar pretty high in terms of photorealistic CGI; I've never seen anything so convincing, and wonder when the time will come that a whole movie will be created that is completely CGI, without actors (just voices), that is totally convincing. I honestly hope this never happens; CGI can't replace flesh, and Cameron wisely keeps the real actors in live action scenes instead of replacing them. Cameron and Peter Jackson know that CGI should only be used to enhance your movie, not drive it, and filmmakers like Michael Bay and George Lucas believe that computers can do everything.

I hope Cameron doesn't take another 12 years to make another movie; though he knows how to utilize CGI, he also lets the script for the most part take a back seat to it. But this is a smart movie; it doesn't say anything new, but it reiterates what we know, and there is a certain poignancy in watching a line of humans being marched onto a space ship and sent back home, defeated, in the end. "They killed their mother," one spiritually in-touch character says. It's a kick-in-the-pants reminder that we can't continue winning forever, and that eventually, the human race will lose.