I'll admit that I was very biased for this film going in, I was rooting for it to be great. They shot the film in my home town of Ashland, Oregon. I know many people that worked on it behind the scenes. The director and I both had films in a block of shorts in the Ashland Independent Film Festival about five years ago. His film, Wow & Flutter was by far the best of the bunch. I could tell that he was on his way on to better things. It wasn't a surprise when he returned with Steve Zahn in tow to make his first feature a few years later. All that said, I am still judging this film on its own. Thankfully, it turned out to be pretty wonderful.

The titular character Calvin Marshall loves baseball more than anything in life. He wakes at the crack of dawn to hit off a tee, to run the bases and take diving slides in an empty ball field. He donates his time to a little league team, teaching the kids proper technique in how to field and throw the ball. He lives and dies for America's game. The only problem is, he really isn't that good.

At least not good enough to make the team for his junior college Bayford Bisons. His coach, Doug Little, played brilliantly by Zahn, really likes Marshall, loves his hustle and determination so much that he can't bring himself to cut the poor kid. Instead telling him he's "injured" and needs to "get better" first. Which leaves poor Calvin even more deluded, thinking that he's made the team. Calvin puts himself on an imaginary DL list, biding his return to the team by broadcasting the Bison sports show and announcing for the girls volleyball team. His world is rocked by the arrival of Tori Jensen, a beautiful volleyball ace with a dark secret. Although Calvin's pursuit of Tori is fun, the film doesn't offer anything new in the romantic-comedy genre. There is one hilarious scene where Coach Little gives Alex love advice completely in baseball analogies.


Where the film does do something new is the sports aspect. Most sports films tell a similar story, they will either follow somebody destined to be great, think The Natural or The Rookie, or they'll follow a cast of misfits who bring it together to win it all, ala The Bad News Bears or Major League. Calvin Marshall tells a new story, something I don't remember seeing in any other sports film. Having a character who is dead set on becoming great, he'd even settle for good, but simply not having the skill set to get it done. It's heartbreaking to let your dreams go, especially when we're told all our lives that if you work hard enough you'll make it in the end. Calvin works and works and works at baseball, but it isn't to be. The film mirrors his story, with that of Coach Little, he's been the great baseball player, the team star, making it as far as the minor leagues, but not quite all the way. Now that he's older, his skills have diminished and he's crushed that his glory days are over.

Steve Zahn is a bit of a revelation here, he usually doesn't get to show this kind of depth. He's in his comfort zone when he's the hilarious, foul-mouthed coach ragging on his players, but it's in the quiet moments, when he's drinking with the local burnouts or trying to pick up sad and lonely girls, that he shows a whole new side. The entire cast is very good. Newcomer Alex Frost is charismatic, holding his own as Calvin among a cast of recognizable faces. Such as Andrew Wilson as Alex's step-uncle and male-role-model, Jane Adams as Alex's aunt, and Diedrich Bader as the coach of a softball team, the only guy who truly appreciates Calvin's baseball skills. Michelle Lombardo, of Californication fame, looks the part and gets to flex a bit of acting muscles as the volleyball goddess Tori Jensen.

But really, the true star of Calvin Marshall is writer/director Gary Lundgren. For a first film and for the budget that the film was made for, it is an amazing feat. There is a definitive "Gary Lundgren style" at work here. He gets good performances out of a range of actors from veterans to rookies. He knows just how to move the camera and the film looks amazing for it. He understands how to set a scene to music and the exact moments in which to use slow-motion. While Calvin Marshall may not make much of a splash in the film world, and I only say that, because it's such a small film, I believe that Lundgren's career will be prosperous. His debut feature most reminds me of Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket, only because you can instantly tell that here is a filmmaker that despite the small budget knew exactly what they wanted to do.

Sadly you'll most likely see Calvin Marshall on video shelves, with Steve Zahn's over-sized head staring out at you. When instead it deserves to be the toast of Sundance. I bet that over the years it will gain a cult following, because the story and the filmmaking are undeniably there and eventually that will get noticed. I'm here writing this review in the small hopes that my words will encourage a few more people to see this little gem. Do yourself a favor and seek out this film.

Without doing any research I'm guessing that writer/director Chris Lusvardi is a child of the 80's. Man Maid an independent film made in 2008, feels exactly like a stereotypical 80's comedy. There's the so-called weak and/or nerdy lead male character, this time personified by Vincent, a cleaning man who works in a small town hotel. At the beginning of the film we see him taunted and teased by the hotel's customers. There's Chloe the beautiful girl he desires, who doesn't notice him for who he is, because of her no-good boyfriend. There's his stud best friend who can get any girl he wants. And finally there's the good girl Torry, who nobody pays attention too because she's boring and "plain" looking. Although obviously beautiful, outside the film. Then there's the array of goofy side characters who show up in the lead character's life to either help or hinder him along his hero's path.

With the help of one of those kooky side characters, here portrayed by a gum smacking maid and hotel prostitute, Vincent comes up with a plan to win the beautiful girl's heart by dating the plain girl. Of course he starts to fall for Torry, but doesn't want to admit it, only does so when his plan explodes in his face. He then comes up with a gigantic 80's movie plan to get her back; he's going to produce a benefit concert to raise $40,000 and save the hotel from evil developers. Don't think that I'm giving away anything with this review, if you've seen more than five movies, you know exactly where this story is going the whole time. This film might as well have been set in a high school and produced by John Hughes.

Being a huge fan of 80's comedies, I wouldn't have had a problem with Man Maid if they'd used a few of these old plot devices to bring us into the film, then turn them on their head and created something new. But this script was written long before the filmmakers ever picked up their first camera. There are the music montages; one showing us the love growing between Vincent and Torry and a couple more reminding us of what happened in the last thirty minutes, with inspirational quotes and all. We instantly know who the bad guy is because he wears a suit and hits on Torry in obnoxious ways. We're given Vincent's backstory about why he wants to be a maid, through cheesy soft-focus flashbacks. The film goes from A to B to C with nothing new in between.

I'll admit I was enjoying the movie for the first act. Most of the actors all do a decent job with their cliché roles, they keep it fun for a while. (The film won best ensemble cast at the Ashland Independent Film Festival, where I saw it.) But once they get to the third act, and they're posting concert fliers around town and building a stage on Vincent's property, even they seem to get bored with the story, and the film ends with a thud. It's all put together with as little panache as possible. There's one moment where Vincent floats down the halls of the hotel behind his maid's cart, but beyond that, the camera angles are as plain as possible. The lighting of the film is too bright and flat, the editing as standard as possible. Man Maid is a film produced two decades too late. - Grade: C+

Eighties teen comedies are right up there with sex and ice cream as things that I will enjoy till the day I die. Movies like Revenge of the Nerds, Just One of the Guys, Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off made me who I am today. However, I've never been that big of a fan of the Porky's series, most likely because I didn't see any of them till I was over 18, they weren't part of my formative years. The first one is a decent example of an 80's teen comedy, it's full of sex, nudity and grotesque jokes. But I never connected with the characters, they never seemed real to me, nothing more than stock characters. That had a lot to do with their limited development, but another problems was all the actors are all in their late 20's, early 30's, trying to play teenagers. It never worked for me.

It had been quite a while since I'd seen part 2 and 3, and I believe I'd only seen both of them once each during my college years. They were both playing on the Fox Movie Channel in widescreen, so I figured I'd check them out again, as they're easy and brainless to watch late at night. But now that it's been a month since I watched them, I'm having a very hard time separating the two. I believe that in The Next Day, they're trying to put together a Shakespeare production, but are getting resistance from the local church for indecency and the KKK because a Seminole Indian is playing Romeo. Pee Wee, the boys and Wendy Williams decide to fight back. In Revenge, Porky has rebuilt his club, and is forcing the boys basketball team to throw the championship game.

One of the problems with the films is there are too many characters, not letting any of them really stand out, the only two guys that stuck with me were Pee Wee, because he's the lead, and Meat, because he's big and has a memorable name. The four or five other guys always kind of blend in together as soon as the movie ends. Overall they're pretty funny, but you never feel like you get to actually know any of them, as they're always together in a group, bagging on each other in the same way. Pee Wee is the only character that has any sort of growth, and it's not much. Wendy, the lead girl, has a couple of good moments, especially at the end of the second film, when she's dressed up as an elaborate showgirl, trashing a local politician's reputation at a fancy restaurant. That scene and the scene where the boys take a prostitute to the cemetery, to double cross one another, and Pee Wee ends up running down the highway nude are the highlights of the film. The Romeo & Juliet stuff doesn't work well, it feels like writer/director Bob Clark trying to cram ideals about censorship and racism into a lighthearted film.

Porky's Revenge is the slightly better film of the two. They get back to basics, they're not trying to ram any messages down our throats, Porky is back as the main villain and Pee Wee and Wendy are no longer a couple. In The Next Day, they get a bit mushy with their relationship. In part 3, Pee Wee's back to being the horny bastard, chasing after the Swedish exchange student, with Wendy and the boys busting his balls. The Porky's universe has returned to normal. These very filled out teenagers, with receding hairlines are about to graduate, they play basketball in some of the most awkwardly filmed sports scenes in history, and try to scam girls into taking their clothes off. The film opens with a fun dream sequence where Pee Wee gets flashed by the Swedish girl and then his robed is ripped off, exposing his erection to the entire crowd. It seems all the best scenes in these films end with Pee Wee naked.

Both these films are pretty sub-par compared to the original Porky's, and I've already stated that I don't hold the first film in very high regard. So as 80's teen-sex comedies go, they rank pretty low on the scale. But if you're desperate for a laugh, you could do worse, as the films are at least fairly well produced, with a 1950's setting, and decent photography and acting. The actors, despite being 10 - 15 years beyond their teens, have good comic timing, keep the film entertaining. I probably won't bother with these sequels again, beyond maybe catching a scene or two on cable. If I want to see some 80's boobs and hear some 80's jokes, I'll check out the far superior Revenge of the Nerds. - Grade: C

I have great memories from the early to mid-eighties of my dad taking me to our little hometown theater to see anything remotely kid friendly, mostly fantasy or sci-fi films, stuff like Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, Flash Gordon and Conan the Destroyer. I have great affection for these sub-par films because of the good memories attached to them. The Ice Pirates was one of those films, and I've revisited it quite a few times over the years, but it had been at least 10 years since I'd seen it. I wasn't sure it would hold up.

What I didn't realize the last time I saw it was how damn funny it is. As a kid I saw it as a fun swashbuckling, space adventure, which it still is, but I didn't get half the jokes till now. It's a great spoof of Star Wars and pirate films, while having its own unique spirit and remaining a fully cohesive film. You genuinely care for these characters as they fight the good fight against the evil conglomerate-Empire that holds the Universe's limited water supply hostage.

There's Jason, the ship's Captain and womanizer, not necessarily in that order; played with great pizazz by Robert Urich. His sidekick and second in command is Roscoe, who's an expert in robotics, they have a great comedic chemistry together. Princess Karina, is your typical damsel in distress, but she's not too annoying. Two of the ship's crew are filled out by some actors who went on to much bigger and better things, Ron Perlman and Anjelica Huston, and the film feels that much better for their involvement. The whole cast is really great, they don't treat the film like a lark, their dedication to their characters makes the film feel better than it is.

The film has quite a few inspired moments; just a few minutes into the film, there's a hilarious scene where robots fight kung fu style. The one that scarred me for life, is where Jason and Roscoe have been captured and are about to get their balls cut off, to be turned into unich-slaves, they float down a conveyor belt, getting their clothes cut off along the way, when a large metal mouth drops down at crotch level and is about to bite off their junk, before their saved at the last second. Even at a very young age it freaked me out, and I remembered it for years. Another classic scene towards the end of the film, happens when the ship goes through a time-warp and everybody starts aging rapidly. By the end, the pirates are all fighting with long gray beards and Jason's grown son comes to save the day.

The Ice Pirates, might be a bit too cheesy for today's average viewer, but those with an appreciation for fine cheese should really enjoy this film. Despite the low budget 80's special effects, the space travel stuff holds up pretty well. The robots are obviously just guys in suits, but they're fun to watch, as they give them a lot of personality. The characters are all pretty memorable, while the story is classic good-guy underdogs vs. all-powerful bad-guy stuff. I think that the young ones would really enjoy the film as well. A very fun, forgotten 80's cult-classic. - Grade: B+ (Seen on 7/6/08)

Michael Gondry is a filmmaker I've had my eye on for quite sometime. In 2001 he made an extremely offbeat comedy, Human Nature, that didn't totally work, but it had such outrageous ideas that it caught my attention. He started out as a commercial and music video director, making my all time favorite video in 2003, The Hardest Button to Button by The White Stripes. In 2004, from a script by the brilliantly-demented Charlie Kaufman, he directed one of the greatest romantic comedies ever, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. His next film, The Science of Sleep, was again a bit uneven, but presented a bunch of way out there moments, that made it definitely worth seeing.

When I heard about the plot for Be Kind Rewind I thought it would be the perfect vehicle for him to explore his tendency to incorporates different film aesthetics and animation styles into his films. Including stop-motion effects, which is a favorite of mine. What better way to get into all these different styles than to "remake" a bunch of Hollywood classics with Jack Black and Mos Def at the helm? And those scenes, especially the classic Ghostbusters remake, are the highlight of the film.

It's the rest of the film which takes place in the "real world", that lacks luster, isn't completely cohesive, and most disappointing of all, boring. I haven't been bored by a Gondry film yet, sure I've been put off by things that didn't work, but there was always something strange enough going on to keep it interesting. But the story about Danny Glover losing his video store to corporate developers wasn't fresh, there wasn't enough drama built to make me care. (And honestly it's not surprising he's losing the store, renting out VHS tapes, in a DVD/Netflix age.)

But there's enough of Jack Black messing around in front of the camera, playing everyone from Miss Daisy to Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 2, to keep the film interesting. Gondry's filmmaking styles flourish when he's focusing on the oddball aspects of the film, but when they're trying to wring some drama out of the been-there, seen-it-before plot, it's too tired to work. Danny Glover and Mia Farrow, who I've always respected, drag down every scene they're in. Sigorney Weaver, makes an appearance towards the end of the film, brings some life to the losing the store plot, but it's way too late. The amateur movie moments are fun, but they're not cohesive; jumping back and forth between inspired movie-making scenes to boring drama. Be Kind Rewind is too uneven to truly work as a film. - Grade: C+ (Seen on 7/4/08)

If I told you that John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd made a film together one year after the classic film Blues Brothers, each still at the height of their comical powers, you’d probably rack your mind for a moment, trying to come up with a comedy masterpiece that you’d somehow misplaced in your brain. Yet, I don’t think most people have seen, or even heard, of the film Neighbors. And you certainly couldn’t call it a comedy classic. Belushi and Aykroyd try their damnedest to save the film, creating a few funny moments, but the script is so dead it's impossible to revive.

The problem starts with Belushi playing the straight-man as homeowner Earl Keese and Aykroyd playing the over-the-top obnoxious, new neighbor Vic. I usually appreciate films that try something new, but Aykroyd, who can definitely play weird, is known as a classic straight-man. (See Ghostbusters, Trading Places or Spies Like Us.) While Belushi always shined as the goofy outcast. Each are so funny in their own right that they do a decent job with their roles, but ultimately it’s a bit off-putting that they’re playing the wrong characters.

The film starts off decently enough, with Belushi and wife sitting around the house, it's another boring night after work. But something different is happening, with the long abandoned house across from them getting moved into by an odd looking couple. The doorbell rings and Belushi answers the door to Cathy Moriarty, who plays the femme fatale, sexpot Ramona to a tee, who leads Belushi into quite a few sexually awkward scenes. Soon her husband, Aykroyd, is on the scene, demanding that Belushi act the host and treat them to dinner. It’s a fairly good set-up for a comedy, but ultimately Neighbors never goes anywhere. The film takes place all in one night, with Belushi constantly being foiled by Vic or Ramona, while his wife thinks the new couple is the cat’s pajamas.

Belushi is repeatedly put into ridiculous situations, each only slightly more awkward than the last, with the film never building to any worthwhile climax. And the way each situation is set-up, the conclusion is telegraphed from a mile off, robbing most moments of its laughs. The line delivery, facial expressions and comic timing of Belushi and Aykryod keep the film from becoming a complete mess; if the film had starred two lesser comedians, it never would have seen the light of day. Director John Avildsen tries his best to dress up the story, with wacky camera angles and some other fun filmmaking tricks, but he’s completely unable to save it as well. If the script had been anywhere near decent, if it had any sense about how to build a story or set a scene, the actors may have been enough to make it a fun comedy. But as it is, Neighbors is far too big of a mess for anyone to bother, and it remains a forgotten piece in two comedy legends filmographies. – Grade: D (Seen on 6/26/08)

Best scene in the film, Belushi gets ready for a date to "Staying Alive":

Will Ferrel seems content in continuing to make the same film over and over until the well runs dry. We as an audience continue to lap up what he’s serving, so he’s able to continue to do so, not forcing him to move on to something greater. But I must admit that his films remain funny, he’s such an offbeat, lovable character that his shtick has yet to grow old. Although I’m not sure how many more trips to the well I can take.

In Semi-Pro, Ferrel plays owner/coach/player Jackie Moon of the fictional ABA team Detroit Tropics. It’s the late 70’s, Moon made his money with a disco one-hit-wonder called "Love Me Sexy", but his bank account is quickly dwindling and the basketball league is dying. The era lets Ferrel and gang dress up in over-the-top costumes, ridiculous even by disco standards. Ferrel gets to rock his trademark white-man’s-fro and as usual he’s obliged to take off his shirt to show off his flabby physique and strange orange, lint-ball chest hair. Woody Harrelson shows off his comic chops as the aging veteran Ed Monix, going through his last hurrah. Will Arnett, does his usual funny routine as the hard-living team announcer, and gets some great one-liners off during the games. Andre Benjamin, doesn’t really get any funny lines as the hot-shot youngster, but he holds his own with some of the best comedians of the day.

I don’t need to spell out the storyline, it’s easy enough to make it out from the trailer. It doesn’t go anywhere fresh or exciting; it’s a fairly typical sports-comedy archtype, simply a foundation for the comedians to riff off of. Perhaps the most interesting development of the film, is that Jackie Moon doesn’t have a love interest, at least female wise, his love is his team. It's not often that the lead character of a comedy, isn't chasing a woman. Harrelson’s character gets the love story, and it’s a twisted one at that.

Perhaps what surprised me the most was the filmmaking, I found it to be far better made than Ferrel’s last few vehicles. There's some actual attention to detail, this isn't the typical, bare minimum, flat-lighting, point a camera in the stars direction, comedy. The film is really nicely shot in widescreen, with some true attention to detail. The costumes and sets are believably 70’s, it doesn’t feel like a bunch of guys playing dress-up, it actually places you into the era. Most importantly I thought it was genuinely funny, I laughed out loud much more during this film, than either Talladega Nights or Blades of Glory. It doesn't feel quite as re-watchable as the minor-classic Anchorman, but it's a close second. – Grade: B (Seen on 6/25/08)

I recently reviewed a pair of French comedies, complaining about the lack of good American comedies lately. These two films here are exactly what I'm talking about. I won't even bother to separate them as they both have all the same problems. In the completely unnecessary remake of The Pink Panther, Steve Martin puts on a ridiculous French accent to play the role of Inspector Jacques Clouseau. Originally made famous and a thousand times funnier, by the comedy-genius Peter Sellers. You can practically smell the desperation in the filmmakers attempts to make us laugh. Steve Martin, who himself once was an incredibly funny man, making stupid comedy seem brilliant, in films like The Jerk. Seems lost in how to make a joke work as Clouseau. He simply pumps everything up to 11; the stupidity of his character is so far out there, it's no longer funny.

I felt the exact same way about Robin Williams in License to Wed. This often intensely hilarious actor, seems out of his depth. I didn't find myself laughing once at his portrayal as Reverend Frank. His nonsensical ideas on how to bring Mandy Moore and John Krasinski together as a couple, didn't once seem genuine. There has to be at least a certain sense of reality, when trying to make us laugh. Krasinski, who I find very funny and charismatic on the great show The Office, seems demeaned to be playing this guy set to be married to the ultra-bland Moore. He does the cliche' romantic-comedy thing, of constantly lying to his partner, performing ridiculous often illegal acts, getting himself deeper into trouble, when a moment of truth would resolve everything.

Poor Kevin Kline and Jean Reno, both great performers in their own rights, couldn't have been more obvious in their lackadaisical approaches to their characters. They both seemed embarrassed to be part of the mess that is The Pink Pather. Emily Mortimer, who plays Clouseau's love interest, is the only one that had any realistic attachment to her character, but she's in the film so briefly that she can't help. Beyonce, once again does her, "look Mom, I'm acting!", thing that I can't stand. The only performances with any life to be found in License to Wed, were done by some of the bit roles. I like young Josh Flitter as the Reverend's aid, he brings some life to his character, and out funnies Williams. Brian Baumgartner, Kevin from The Office, is maniacally over-the-top as another finance going through Reverend Frank's trials, but he at least seems to be trying to get some laughs.

The filmmakers behind these two extremely lame attempts at comedic filmmaking should be embarrassed by these movies. They are sloppily put together, with no real sense of zest, horribly acted by reliable performers, and worse beyond anything, not funny. I think between these two films, I had three slight chuckles, but countless groans at the pathetic attempts at humor. Not once was I drawn into the film or made to care about anyone in the least, I remained a distant viewer throughout each. The only worthwhile moment in either film is the opening credits animation in The Pink Panther, because it reminded me of the better versions of the film. - Grade: C- (Seen on 6/4/08) License to Wed plain sucked throughout. - Grade: D- (Seen on 6/15/08)

I'm always on the lookout for good comedies. At times it feels like I've run out of them. You can't rely on Hollywood to produce a smart, well-made comedy these days. Judd Apatow and his crew are probably the only guys operating with half a brain; otherwise you're stuck with Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler films, which I'm a fan of both, but I never feel fully satisfied after watching one of their films. Below those guys, you're not likely too find much quality. If you're lucky a decent indie-comedy comes out once a year, something like Juno or Little Miss Sunshine. But there's no consistency. This is a long winded way of saying, that I'm in a drought of American comedies from the last 30 years. I thought I'd try some French ones.

I saw The Valet a while back and remembered enjoying it. It felt very much like an old-school Hollywood comedy, so I thought I'd check out some more films from filmmaker Francis Veber. The first one that caught my attention was Le Diner de cons or The Dinner Game. It was the premise that made it sound so promising. A well off guy, Pierre, and his friends organize a dinner where they have a competition to see who can invite the biggest idiot. Something totally original sounding and a plain good idea to start a film with. What kind of morons will be there? Will the guests figure it out? Will they get revenge on their snooty hosts?

The film starts out by introducing us too some of these nincompoops, but the cake is taken, when we meet François Pignon. The guy oozes simpleton; a perfectly round, balding head, a really bad suit and constantly perplexed expression. He works in a tax agency, but his true calling in life is building models of famous items out of matchsticks. Pierre hears about the legendary dunce that is Pignon, through a friend, and invites him to dinner, thinking he has himself a winner.

The interesting thing about this film, is that these two never make it to that dinner. Pierre throws his back out, so Pignon meets him at his house, thinking that Pierre wants to see photos of his models. Instead he ends up taking care of Pierre, who along with a bad back, is having problems with his wife. Pignon's wife left him not too long before and sees a fellow in need of help. His complete ineptitude in conversing with anyone, brings Pierre even more problems. Crashing down upon him are his nutty-mistress, a scorn friend who can do nothing but laugh at his misfortune, his wife's lover, and another tax agent with a nose for fraud. In one night, his life is destroyed beyond recognition.

The dialog is so brilliantly hilarious, the story built so perfectly, the characters portrayed so beautifully, that you don't care that most of the film takes place in one room. François Pignon is one of cinema's all time great comedy creations, actor Jacques Villeret, embodies a character so hopelessly inept, but so full of compassion, that it's impossible not to love him. Poor Pierre is helpless as Pignon tears his already crumbling life into tiny pieces, but we're shown that he deserves it, and none of it's done maliciously, so it's easy to laugh at his misfortunes. The Dinner Game provided the most gut busting laughs I've had in a long time. Although, I still want to see the film about them making it too that dinner. - Grade: A (Seen on 5/31/08)

After the utter brilliance of The Dinner Game, I couldn't watch another Francis Veber film quick enough. I moved his follow-up film, The Closet, to the top of my queue. This film too has a plot ripe for a Hollywood remake. A pathetic fellow, finds out his company is about to let him go, so he and a friend come up with a scheme to help him keep his job. He's going to "accidentally" come out as a gay man, so they won't be able to fire him in fear of discrimination. This of course leads to all kinds of wackiness with his co-workers treating him differently, most notably by Félix, who isn't quite sure how to treat a gay man.

Strange... I just noticed that the lead character's name in this film is also François Pignon, as well as the lead character in The Valet and some of his other films I haven't seen. So, François, played nicely by well known French actor Daniel Auteuil, while trying to portray someone he's not, learns all kinds of lessons about life, most notably that he wasn't being true to himself in the first place. He's able to gain the respect of his co-workers, his son and his ex-wife by not being such a pushover. But most of the comedy comes in the relationship he's forming with Félix, played by everyone's favorite Frenchman Gérard Depardieu. At first Félix cracks horrible jokes about him, but is soon convinced by another co-worker, that they must become friends, and Félix begins to see François in a whole other, more romantic way.

If I'd seen The Closet, before The Dinner Game, I probably would have enjoyed it much more. The Dinner Game made me laugh by creating the unexpected, while The Closet plays it right on the nose. I knew exactly how most of the scenes were going to play out, which robbed the film of many of its laughs. It's still a decent film, that's worth seeing, well made and acted; but I gave it unfair expectations. - Grade: B (Seen on 6/8/08)

Below is the American trailer for The Closet. I hate these trailers for foreign films, where the narrator does all the talking, trying to disguise the fact that you're looking at a film with subtitles. Oh, the horror!

(Seen on 5/19/08) I’m not quite sure why they’re trying to sell this film like one of the quirky coming-of-age films, with the comic book type poster, like it’s the next Juno or Rocket Science. Except for a slightly off-skew sense of humor, this film is nothing like those types. It’s not cute or quirky, there are no smart-ass teenagers; nor is the soundtrack full of Violent Femmes songs. This is an adult film, with adult issues, and a lot to do about death and how people death with it. But it’s funny.

Even though both the main characters, Wendy and Jon Savage, are middle aged, it does have one thing in common with those kinds of films; it’s a coming-of-age story. Both Jon and Wendy are stuck in an advanced state of adolescence. What finally kicks them in the ass to grow up, is dealing with their dying father. Wendy, played with spit and vinegar by Laura Linney, is an artsy-little-girl stuck in a woman’s body. Wendy is having an affair with a married man, does temp jobs, while dreaming about writing plays; her only responsibility being a potted plant. Her younger brother Jon, another wonderful character from one of the greatest actors of our generation, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, is a little more grown-up; he has a real job as a professor of literature and a live in girlfriend, but he's still very much figuring out life.

When their father’s girlfriend dies, leaving him without a home, they’re forced to move him from Arizona, into a low rent retirement home in Buffalo, NY, where Jon teaches school. It’s quite apparent to them, that he doesn’t have much time left and they decide that Wendy will move in with Jon for a while, so they can spend his lingering days together. They didn’t have much of a family life together when they were young, they want the opportunity to get to know him before he’s gone. This dysfunctional family slowly learns how to love each other once again. Jon’s also dealing with his girlfriend’s visa expiring, and her being forced out of the country; while Wendy and her married boyfriend’s relationship comes to a head.

The Savages is a wonderful little film, full of great performances; with Linney and Hoffman making their characters fully rounded and sometimes too close to home. I also really liked Philip Bosco as the father Lenny, he gives dying a true depth, a reality, and some humor. This is not a laugh-out-loud comedy, but sometimes you have to chuckle at the darkest moments in life, because dwelling on them too much would be too much to handle. Writer/director Tamara Jenkins culled this film out of her real life experiences, and the film feels all the more realistic for it. (She also did a little film I dug called The Slums of Beverly Hills.) This is a film with a true beating heart, it understands how people really act out their lives. Spending some time with The Savages leaves you with more life experience. – Grade: B+

(Seen on 5/17/08) I really dig anti-romantic-comedies. Love is such a powerful emotion, that when it turns bad, it can truly ruin your life. So it’s cathartic to watch fictional characters go through it so convincingly, instead of the typical romantic comedy where the characters find their perfect love and everything ends with a happily ever after. And sure, Forgetting Sarah Marshall gets around to that by the end, but it finds its where there in a completely different fashion than the usual film.

Written by and starring Jason Segal, the film has the Judd Apatow feeling all over it. Most likely because Segal has been working with Apatow for most of his career, starting out as a teenager on the great show Freaks & Geeks, and Apatow produced it. Segal’s always had the chance to play the funny best friend, like in the Apatow creation Knocked Up or the surprisingly funny CBS show How I Met Your Mother; here he gets the chance to star. He’s in nearly every single scene of the film, and proves that he can be equally funny, embarrassing and awkwardly charming as the leading man Peter, who writes music for a CSI type show.

In the already infamous opening scene of the film, he learns that his TV star girlfriend, the titular Sarah Marshall, played lovably-bitchy by the beautiful Kristen Bell, is breaking up with him. Just coming out of the shower he’s buck naked, which adds to his vulnerability; it’s hilarious to watch him snuggle up to her, his flabby body shaking in agony and she reveals the truth about her sleeping with another man.

Never have we seen a dude fall this hard. Peter’s completely broken, incapable of making it through the day without breaking down into a torrent of tears and whining. He tries to cure it with a couple of unemotional one night stands, but even they end in tears. His best friend, played hilariously and mostly via webcam, by Bill Hader, suggests that he takes a vacation to Hawaii to ease his mind away from losing Sarah. This being a film and all, he ends up in the same hotel with her, while she’s on vacation with her new Rock Star boyfriend Aldus Snow. Aldus is a wonderful creation, so often do they turn the competing man into a complete and total jerk, making it all too easy to root for the lead character. But Aldus has such a wonderfuly obscure view of life, that he’s impossible to hate, even as he sings Sarah an overly sexual song in front of the whole resort.

The four lead characters of the film are surprisingly well rounded. You actually get to care about and understand each of their points of view. It’s not black and white, where you simply hate the characters you’re supposed to hate and love the characters you’re supposed to love. Segal’s script gives you a chance to get to know everyone and feel a bit what it’s like in their shoes, so that eventually you understand why Sarah left him, and then why she wants him back. I thought that Mila Kunis played a fairly one-note character as Jackie on That 70’s Show, but she always made me laugh, proving that she had good comic timing. Here she gets to play a real girl, one with true emotions, so we’re falling in love with her along with Peter. We also fall in love with Hawaii; the sun, the beach, and the palm trees create such a romantic setting, that almost any woman might seem like a goddess there.

I mentioned that this film feels very much like a Apatow film, which it does because of the mix of gross-out humor and true heart. But I actually liked this film better than both 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, it moves along at a better pace, seems more focused in its attention; while both those films run 20-30 minutes too long, wearing out their welcome. There are a couple of great supporting roles for Apatow regulars; Jonah Hill as a pathetic hotel employee, who's obsessed with Aldus, and Paul Rudd gets a couple of great lines as the hotel’s surfing teacher. Segal, as the lead, is pretty much the straight-man, with everyone around him bouncing wacky lines off him; he gets plenty of laughs though, and must live out one of his childhood dreams in a scene near the end of the film with a hilarious puppet version of Dracula. A truly inspired scene. I was impressed by how well rounded the whole film feels, so often these goofy films leave reality behind, but here they add another dimension, making you truly care about the characters. – Grade: B+

I've been a fan of Albert Brooks since the early 90's. I saw Defending Your Life over and over again as a teenager, and to this day it remains one of my all time favorite comedies. In the years following I saw his earlier works, Lost in America and Modern Romance, both of which I think are brilliant films. His film that came after Defending Your Life, Mother is fairly uneven, but overall it's funny and worth seeing. His voice work in Finding Nemo is great, and he's always one of The Simpsons best guests. When Looking for Comedy came out in 2005, I was fairly excited, but the critics beat it too death before I got a chance to see it. After The Muse, which I thought was pretty terrible, I didn't want to rush into seeing another wreck from him and have my opinion lowered, so it took me three years to get around to it.

Unfortunately the critics were right. Looking for Comedy is a pretty lame film, there are only a few moments that I laughed at. I don't think the average American audience would find the film funny at all. I hope that he hasn't lost it as a filmmaker, there aren't many guys around that write, direct and star in their own films. The greatest of all-time, Woody Allen has moved behind the camera. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone else who's doing it besides Brooks and Edward Burns, who I've never been a real fan of.

In Looking for Comedy, Brooks plays a version of himself; big stretch. In the opening scene, one of the few funny ones in the film, Penny Marshall playing herself, is casting a film she's directing and looking for a Jimmy Stewart type. Brooks shows up to audition, has a brief chat with her and is shown the door, it's obvious he's not the right guy. He's been getting that a lot lately. Never the handsome-leading-man type, as he's getting older, he's losing out on more roles than ever. So when an opportunity comes through the government, for an assignment to go to India and find out what the Muslim culture finds funny, he's intrigued. His motivation is a Medal of Honor, his reluctance is in the 500 page report he has to write about it, but through his wife's encouragement, he decides to take the job.

Along for the ride are two government agents who are supposed to help him in his assignment. One is completely humorless, takes his job seriously and doesn't seem to want to help at all. The other is a fan of Brooks, and considers himself a bit of a comedian, but also isn't much help. Once in India, Brooks finds that almost nothing, except for an small, empty office has been set up. He finds himself interviewing the locals for someone who can assist him, but nobody gets what he's doing or seems qualified in the least. Until he meets Maya, she types quickly, has written a large report for college and has the motivation to understand Brooks' sense of humor. They start by doing man-in-the-street interviews, asking people what makes them laugh; after a couple of days, and only a half a page of answers, he decides to take another course.

Instead, he'll put on a comedy show, covering all sorts of comedy, from the low-brow to the intellectual, and whatever the audience laughs at, he'll fill his report with. It's one of the few inspired moments in the film, and the only one that provided a few deep laughs. But he's doing obscure jokes, that would fly over the average American's head, let alone his mostly Muslim and Hindu audience. He does a bit where he plays an incompetent ventriloquist, and then tries to do some improve, to involve the audience by asking them questions, then changes all the audiences answers because he can't find a joke with them. He does it so dryly, with so little showmanship, that it took me, an Albert Brooks fan, a couple of minutes to figure out that that was the joke. Unsurprisingly the audience doesn't laugh at all.

The film peaks at that moment. It continues on with Brooks traveling illegally into Pakistan to meet with a comedy troupe, where he does the same routine, with better results. Unknowingly, the Indian and Pakistan governments have been following him, and there's a slight subplot about him starting a bit of a cold war between the nations, that doesn't really pay off until the very end of the film, in the background. The whole film's like that.

It's almost like Brooks didn't want the audience to laugh at the film. He doesn't find any comedy in the Muslim world and he almost seems ashamed of his own funny business. I'm sure there's some deeper meaning that I'm missing, maybe about how we all need to find the funny within ourselves. Maybe now that he's older, he's getting more experimental, or the film could truly be a misfire, which I don't want to believe. Looking for Comedy has a few great moments, with a lot of boring ones in between, which drags the film down. With his next one, I'd like him to get back to his observational humor, maybe do something about getting older, where he's not necessarily playing himself, with a ton of insider jokes. I think only the biggest Albert Brooks' fans will appreciate this one, and then, only as one of his lesser films. - Grade: C-

I love discovering 80's movies that I have never seen. They're like a forgotten part of my youth. No matter how I feel about the movie, I love seeing that era on film, it captures a time when the world seemed limitless. How Night of the Comet escaped my attention for so long, I'll never understand. A dark-comedy about the end of the world, made during the zenith of the decade, 1984; I really couldn't find a better undiscovered gem. Unfortunately the film didn't live up to my high expectations.

Regina's your typical 80's teenager, she works in a movie theater, prides herself on her video game skills and doesn't mind spending the night with the theater's projectionist in his projection room. Luckily the room is lined with lead, for when a comet passes by the earth that night, it turns almost everyone into cosmic dust. Those it doesn't, it turns into murderous-mutants. When Regina returns home, she's lucky to find her little sister Samantha still alive, who spent the night in the shed (also lined with lead), while her step-mom and friends were having a comet party. They soon find they're seemingly the only ones left alive in L.A..

They travel to a local radio station to see if they can find anyone over the airwaves. Soon a lone guy, Hector, comes calling. And unknown to them, someone else is listening in, a group of scientists who expected the aftereffects of the comet, and are hiding out in a bunker off in the desert. There's a great scene after the girls leave the radio station, they head straight for the local mall, and start trying on clothes; I could have done without the 80's clothes montage, but when a gang of psyched-out store employees attack the girls with machine guns, it's a lot of fun. Hector's gone off to find out if any of his family has survived, running into a crazy-mutant boy instead. At this point I had a lot of hope for the film, it was carrying a great tone between apocalyptic-horror and dark-comedy. There had been a few cool mutant scenes, and I was expecting a lot more.

When the scientists show up to kidnap the sisters, the film starts to lose it's touch. It turns from these girls discovering their new world, into a rescue mission from an underground bunker. Bunker's just don't excite me. I know it's a way for the filmmakers to keep costs down. They set up a few "sci-fi" props in these dark-gray tunnels and call it a film set. I've seen too many movies, especially post-apocalypse types, made in these boring tunnels. Anyways, Hector comes to the rescue, the scientists get whats coming to them, and the gang's back together to enjoy the empty world together.

I really loved Kelli Maroney's performance as little sister Sam. She has this undeniable spunk that lasts throughout the film, from her beginnings as a naive teenager, to a true apocalyptic warrior. Unfortunately the performances by Catherine Mary Stewart (who also played the girlfriend in 1984's The Last Starfighter) as Regina, isn't nearly as memorable, she doesn't take anything off the table, but also doesn't bring much too it either. Robert Beltran as Hector is completely forgettable, they needed an actor with much more charisma in this role. The film really hinges on these three characters and the bond that they form, but even while Regina and Hector are becoming a couple, they never seem to be on the same page. Three great leads would have tremendously helped this film.

It's so hard for films to keep the energy that is initially set-up through the entire film. Night of the Comet is another casualty of this all-too-common film-making problem. The first half of this film really rocks, the excitement of discovering this apocalyptic 80's setting, a few crazy-mutants, and an empty L.A. all to themselves. But once they're taken to the bunker, the film loses all momentum. Samantha is also missing during this section of the film, which doesn't help, as she's by far the most entertaining character.

But even as I write about these problems, I have a feeling that I'll give the film another chance in the future. It has enough good stuff going for it to make it a worthwhile film. If they had thrown out the scientists, and had a lot more mutants, I think I would have heard of this film long before I did. Not a forgotten classic, but a misplaced, rusty toy car whose wheels still spin. - Grade: B-

This movie is going to be tough for me to review. I've been creating a film with a very similar plot in my head for over 5 years. If I ever get a chance to make that film, it will turn out very different from The Good Night, but I don't want anyone thinking that I stole the core idea from this film. Being selfish about my idea, I hope that this film never gets wide exposure, but it's an interesting film that deserves to be seen, so I also have to recommend it.

The Good Night is about Gary, a deeply unhappy man. He's a musician who's sold out his artistic sensibilities to create music for commercials. He lives with his girlfriend Dora; in the opening scene you get a good sense of their relationship, they're simply brushing their teeth together, but instantly you can tell there's tension in their relationship, she's irritated by him standing in front of the sinking, he's irritated by her pushing her way in just as he's about to spit. When they say "I love you" before turning the lights off, you can tell the words have lost all meaning.

Sleep is Gary's only reprieve. He hates his job, he's miserable at home. His mind begins to build an escape for him through his dreams. Night after night he dreams about the same woman, played by the gorgeous Penélope Cruz, she's the perfect woman, everything he wants that he's not getting in the real world. He becomes obsessed with his sleep, making all sorts of changes to his routine to sleep better. Every time he wakes up, he's completely pissed, he doesn't doesn't want to leave this girl of his dreams. When Dora leaves for an extended trip, he gets far worse, covering his walls with soundproofing, and befriending Mel a lucid dream expert. Mel, played with world-weariness by Danny Devito, teaches him how to better control his dreams.

Things get weirder when he discovers that the girl of his dreams exists in the real world. His best friend, played by the always funny Simon Pegg, an ad executive sets up a meeting for Gary with this girl who's a model in real life. Besides looking exactly alike, the women don't have much in common and things don't turn out the way you might expect. The Good Night, isn't a typical romantic comedy, it's much darker, and besides the out-there premise, much more representative of true relationships.

I'll admit that Adam Sandler's brand of juvenile humor makes me laugh. I don't watch his films expecting realistic characters, an intriguing story or good film-making, I watch them because Sandler does a lot of stupid things that my inner twelve-year-old finds funny. Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, both over ten-years-old, continue to be guilty pleasures; and sadly both remain the funniest films of his career. While The Wedding Singer, is his most all-around satisfying film. (I'm talking about films that he and his company developed, not films that he's appeared in as an actor, because Punch-Drunk Love would be my all time favorite.) His last two films, Click and The Longest Yard were both uniformly terrible, with minimal laughs. It was with reluctance that I went into I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.

I was pretty desperate for a comedy, and with it being out for months on DVD, I figured it was time I got around to it. Another reason I wanted to see it was for Jessica Biel's scene in her panties, which they flaunt in the trailer (and I use in the site's banner, not above selling sex myself), she's a total hottie and it's a scene worth seeing. Even if it's completely unrealistic and unbelievable. The whole movie's like this, Chuck & Larry are the least convincing gay couple ever, I don't think anyone would buy it, especially not New Yorkers, let alone an attorney who specializes in discrimination cases.

I said I don't expect realistic characters in an Sandler flick, but these guys are so out of touch that it remained a distraction throughout. The whole film is pretty offensive to homosexuals, their constant disgust and joking at the thought of touching or kissing each other didn't make me laugh. The worst comes when Rob Schneider puts on the Asian look and accent, he might as well have put on black-face, it was so offensive. At the core of the film, they're trying to teach tolerance, which makes it a mixed message, but I appreciated their intent.

Overall, I liked I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry more than Sandler's last few flicks. I chuckled lightly at times, but no huge laughs; I tried to overlook the offensive bits, and enjoyed seeing Biel in her panties. The film never raises above average, dips below for much of the time. But thanks to the performances of Sandler, Kevin James and an excellent supporting cast, including the always funny Steve Buscemi and a fairly brave performance by Ving Rhames, it managed to keep me slightly entertained throughout. - Grade: C-