Swing Vote

First Hit: This was much better than I thought it would be.

My fear of seeing this film was that there seemed to be a high probability of it being a dumb put on or a tongue-in-cheek farce. The previews didn’t do much to dispel this thought or perception.

However, I was gladly wrong. My first concern was how could 1 vote make a difference? The filmmakers did a reasonable job of explaining how an event like this could happen. Not that I fully bought the premise but it was enough to make be move through my internal hurdle.

The second concern was would the actors play this as sort of a fluff piece and not take the premise seriously, especially Kevin Costner who needed to play someone who isn’t very bright and has no inclination to learn?

However, again I was surprised. Kevin (as Bud), plays a middle aged man who works in an egg factory sorting eggs. He is raising his daughter Molly (played by Madeline Carroll) who is smart as a whip and is running the family show.

She takes care of Kevin and wants him to care more about everything and especially his right and social responsibility to cast his vote. He promises to show up, but gets laid off that day, gets drunk, and fails to show up at the polling booth where Molly is patiently waiting for him. As the time for the poll reaches closing time, she decides to sneak in, get his ballot, and vote for him.

However, the voting machine gets unplugged at the critical moment and therefore his (her) vote isn’t registered. Because his single vote will decide the election, he gets 10 days to revote.

The incumbent President and his challenger come to his town and do what they can to persuade his upcoming vote.

Kevin Costner pulls this off. He is excellent as Bud and doesn’t minimize or over play the role. Madeline Carroll, playing Molly is equally outstanding and I trust her good work here will create additional acting roles for her. The combination of them together was excellent. Both Dennis Hopper (The democratic candidate) and Kelsey Grammer (the incumbent republican president) are good in their roles and show how politicians bend their principals to win. Lastly, seeing Mare Winningham (as Molly's mother) was wonderful and her 5 minutes of screen time was a plus.

Overall: This was an enjoyable funny poignant film because we are in the midst of a political presidential race.

Step Brothers

First Hit: A less than mediocre film with an occasional spark of brilliance.

I think I’ve said it before in a earlier review that I don’t find Will Ferrell very funny.

I always see him as trying too hard to be funny and his energy and effort just don’t work for me. John C. Reilly on the other hand is someone who, at times, does some good work both in a serious and comedic roles.

In this film, the premise is that both these guys are 40 years old live at home boys. Neither of these boys/men work and they sponge off their respective parents. The parents meet at a conference, fall in love and decide to marry.

This puts both boys/men in the same house together and sharing a room. Eventually they have to fend for themselves, grow up a little, and then their parents see they aren’t happy being adults so the set it up for them to regress again.

Mary Steenburgen plays Will Ferrell’s mother and Richard Jenkins plays John C. Reilly’s father. We don’t often get to see Steenburgen and it was sad to me to see her in this film, it wasn’t a good role for her. Even worse was seeing Jenkins be in this film when, earlier this year, he was incredible in The Visitor.

Overall: Late night TV movie or a rental with your kids who may relate a little and find it funny to see adults act stupid.

Get Smart

First Hit: I couldn’t tell if it wanted to be an action film or a comedy.

I use to enjoy the television program by the same name because it was very campy and tongue in cheek.

However, this film never seemed to find traction in any genre. It wasn’t campy, it wasn’t tongue in cheek, nor was it a serious action film. It virtually had no identity.

The overall premise is the KAOS wants to blackmail the U.S. for $200,000,000,000.00 (A very large sum but actually less than we’re spending on our current engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan). If they do not get this money they will set off nuclear devices all over the world, including the U.S.

The U.S. scoffs at this threat and CONTROLL decides it might know how to find out who is making this threat and if it is real. Maxwell Smart (played by Steve Carell) along with Agent 99 (played by Anne Hathaway) are assigned by CONTROLL to find the source of the weapons. They play their roles a little bit too seriously, or the writing and direction didn’t let the actors breathe into the campy fun part of the real Get Smart. However, at least Maxwell and Agent 99 do get to show their affection for each other, which was a nice touch.

A couple of funny bits are played out by Dwayne Johnson as Agent 23 and David Koechner playing Larabee. Terence Stamp playing KAOS’ Siegfried appears as a straight part all the way and there could have been much more done with some of the gizmos to add some lightheartedness and campy nature to this endeavor.

Overall: Mediocre film, which never found its footing in action, comedy or satyr. It could have been a wonderfully funny reflection of our bumbling government’s secret services, but instead it just fell flat.

The Love Guru

First Hit: A comedy that is rarely funny and very haphazard in execution – one of the worst Myers films ever.

In interviews Mike Myers comes across as intelligent and thoughtful. Therefore, how he comes up with a film like this is beyond me.

Here he plays Guru Pitka, the Love Guru and in second place in the Guru standings behind Deepak Chopra (how can a Guru be in second place?). Guru Pitka wants to be the number one Guru but just doesn’t have enough of a following to be on Oprah’s show which he believes will put him over the top.

Jessica Alba, who plays a hockey executive, needs to find something to help her star player (Romany Malco) who is down in dumps and cannot play hockey any longer because his girlfriend has left him for Jacques “Le Coq” Grande, played by Justin Timberlake.

Jacques happens to be a hockey player as well and it just so happens they are going to be the opposing teams in the Stanley Cup Finals. Because Alba admires Guru Pitka’s teachings, she hires him to cure the star hockey player’s love life with former girlfriend. She believes with this change he will play great hockey, she’ll be the toast of town, and she is willing to pay Guru Pitka 2 million dollars if it works.

Pitka’s agent says that if this happens, Oprah will book him on her show. Between the beginning and end of this film we are bombarded with nearly 1,000 bad junior and high school level jokes, all poorly executed along with an obvious ending to the film.

Marco Schnabel either didn’t have the chops or authority to make a decent film out the talent available. Although Jessica Alba is watchable, the best thing in the film was the over the top performance by Justin Timberlake.

Overall: Definitely not something that I could recommend seeing for any reason.

You Don't Mess With the Zohan

First Hit: Occasionally and sophomorically funny with attempts to make points about the absurdity of race and religious belief issues.

This Adam Sandler film attempts to make fighting terrorism or the reasons for terrorism to exist, funny.

The premise is Zohan (Played by Sandler), who uses hummus for everything, is the supreme Israeli fighter and anti-terrorist agent. We first see him on vacation showing off to the women doing almost inhuman things. He gets the call to cut his vacation short to capture (again) “The Phantom” (played by John Turturro).

Because Zohan wants out of the terrorist fighting business and longs to be a hairdresser in New York, he fakes his death in a fight with “The Phantom”. When he arrives in New York he finds it’s harder to get a job as a hairdresser than he thought.

He finally gets a job at a Palestinian shop run by Dalia (played by Emmanuelle Chriqui). His climb to being a great hairdresser is based on paying attention to his clients, their needs, and from “servicing” them.

During the film most races get skewered. In the end everybody sees the fruitlessness of discrimination between the Palestinians and Jews and everyone is happy.

Some of the bits are really stupid and done again and again while others are funny and on the absurd side. However, the sophomoric way in which most of the comedic intentions are expressed (the constant bumping and grinding of his “really large bush”) just become wearing, thin and with a lack of imagination.

Overall: This is a see it on video film if you are in for a couple hours of stupid sophomoric comedy with an obvious ending.