The Pink Pannther 2

First Hit: Better than Steve Martin’s first attempt at being Inspector Clouseau and although there are funny bits, it isn’t any better than the original Pink Panthers starring Peter Sellers.

I’m not sure why Steve Martin decided to do remakes of the Pink Panther series. Maybe it is because he admired Peter Sellers so much, I don’t know. Lord knows Martin has enough writing talent to create something better (“Shopgirl” or even better his play “Picasso at the Lapin Agile”), however he’s chosen to redo the Pink Panther films.

His first attempt was an obvious attempt to recreate Peter Sellers’ version of the character. However, in this attempt Steve is more relaxed and plays to his own strengths (the flamenco dance was perfect Martin). As Clouseau, he is part of “The Dream Team” of top police inspectors who work on big international cases. As soon as he leave France the Pink Panther diamond is stolen from a French museum.

Clouseau and the dream team then make attempts to solve the crime. Having a group of other good inspectors on the case helps this film and gives Martin foils to expand his type of humor.

Martin is much better and more relaxed as Clouseau in this film. The story line is expanded with the addition of Andy Garcia as Vicenzo, Alfred Molina as Pepperidge, and Yuki Matsuzaki as Kenji who make up “The Dream Team”. Garcia was funny as a suave inspector from Italy. Lily Tomlin played Mrs. Berenger an officer who helps officers be socially correct and on their best behavior. I couldn’t help but think this was an added on part to boost up the comedic aspects for Martin.

Overall: This film had some funny bits and was overall somewhat enjoyable but comes nowhere near the films he is complementing.

He's Just Not That Into You

First Hit: Overall, I really liked this film because it does tell a truth about relationships: If a guy doesn’t contact you, he’s not interested and the converse is true as well; a woman will let you know they are interested.

This film is loaded with big name female talent with Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, and Drew Barrymore. Outside of Ben Affleck, the men’s talent, which performed admirably, consisted of lesser known actors.

However, the primary vehicle of this film is Ginnifer Goodwin who plays Gigi an open, forever hopeful and radiant girl who is looking for love. She is charming, available, and maybe a little too ready to the men she meets. She sees the good side in each of them, lets them know she is interested but they just don’t call her back.

Her anxiousness around getting called is displayed in a number of scenes of her watching and checking (to see if it still works) her phone and they are truthfully funny. She is getting advice from her co-worker, a married woman, named Janine (Played by Connelly) whose marriage isn’t working well but hides it well under a matter of fact and busy life.

Gigi finally gets some good men’s coaching from Alex (played by Justin Long) who simply tells her what the signals are and helps her to see things more clearly. Johansson does a good funny and realistic turn as Anna, a woman who hopes the married man (Happens to be Janine’s husband) she met is going to leave his wife for her.

Aniston and Affleck (playing Beth and Neil respectively) do a good turn as a couple struggling with different ideals around the form of a committed relationship. Barrymore is funny and really good in a lesser role.

Goodwin was excellent in her role as a forever hopeful person reaching for and learning about relationships. All the other actors were good as well and the direction Ken Kwapis was very good as demonstrated by keeping this 2+ hour film moving along, and interesting. The biggest downside for me were the 4 or 5 breaks (like chapter headings) where the screen goes black and they there is a statement indicating what issue will be addressed next. The film didn’t need it and only disengaged me from the well thought out script.

Overall: I was surprised by how well this film flowed and the points about relationships it made.

New In Town

First Hit: There was potential for this to be a good film but it fell flat with a misguided script and direction.

Renee Zellweger has proven herself to be an outstanding dramatic (Cold Mountain and Chicago) and comedic actress (Bridget Jones series).

When a film doesn’t know what it wants to be the actors have a difficult time meeting the expectations of the roles. “New In Town” is such a film. It is lost and the director either did a poor interpretation of the script or the script was disjointed, unclear or poorly written.

Renee plays Lucy Hill a hot shot Miami corporate executive sent to Minnesota to re-tool a factory into producing some new energy bar. Arriving in Minnesota from Florida is shocking not only because it is the middle of winter but the lifestyle difference between corporate business and small factory business is so obvious.

The set-up for comedy is available but the overt use of speech cadence and phrasing of people from this small Minnesota town created an unnecessary dumbing down of the town people. This, in-turn, caused me to lose interest in the town and its people. In comparison if you watch Fargo and the use of geographic language particulars and its characters versus the use these in this film, one readily sees an excellent use geographic particulars versus a poor use of them. I don’t think Renee gave her best effort and I’m not sure why but it almost seemed as though she was reading cue cards in some scenes.

Overall: This film shows how to waste good talent and a reasonably good concept.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

First Hit: This film fails in just about every way. There are only a few really and truly funny bits (most of them seen in the previews) and the tired plot of overweight bumpkin getting hot girl is tired, especially in this approach.

The dearth of films during January was the second reason I saw this film. The first reason is that it topped the box office receipts for a couple of weeks. How this film gets seen by so many people and it hangs on for a few weeks is beyond me.

We have this overweight character, Paul Blart (Played by Kevin James) who continues to fail the test for entrance into the police academy. The reason he fails is not because he is unfit and probably couldn’t do the obstacle course as we are shown in the opening moments of the film but because he is hypoglycemic and passes out if he doesn’t have a sugar fix. That he passes out one foot from finishing the test is unbelievable.

The premise is poor and the film sinks from there. The bad guy Veck Sims (Played by Keir O’Donnell) in the film attempts to act as if he and his gang of bad boys have the chops to do the crime they are planning, but there is no evidence that they do.

Nothing in this film is believable, except that you get that Paul and his daughter Maya (played by Raini Rodriguez) have a good and solid relationship.

The storyline and writing is very weak and is even weaker in its delivery. I would think that a stronger use of the setting (a major mall) would have proved more interesting along with a more believable criminal element might have moved this film up a notch, but what it needed was a good story and it wasn’t there.

Overall: This was a poorly executed bit of fluff that, for all intensive purposes, had potential when the original pitch was made.

Bride Wars

First Hit: The biting one liners and attacks kept this film alive.

Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway play Liv and Emma respectively. They are two lifelong friends who dream of marrying at The Plaza hotel in New York.

Liv is a high powered lawyer and the film has scenes showing her being in command and in control of situations. She is shown as always getting what she wants. Emma, on the other hand, is a teacher at school and is often helping out others to the detriment of her own wants and needs.

They both have boyfriends with Liv really wanting her boyfriend to propose to her. Emma’s boyfriend surprisingly proposes to her while sitting on the couch eating Chinese food.

The proposal is cute and well done. Not to be outdone Liv forces a proposal from her boyfriend at his office in front of his fellow workers and although he was planning on doing it later that evening it comes off quite well. Because of some poor planning, both their weddings are scheduled on the same day in the Plaza Hotel which causes them to not be each other bride’s maids.

This escalates into sabotage of each other wedding with some pretty dirty tricks.

This is a very light hearted film with little overall value or lessons to learn. Both Hudson and Hathaway are fine in their roles and the sharp barbs and antics keeps the film well paced.

Overall: It is lighthearted and the barbs and antics keep it watchable.