Pain and Gain

First Hit:  This film didn’t know what it wanted to be and I left wondering what the point was.

A film that has to tell you about 2/3 the way through that it is still a true story, means it didn’t do its job. It didn’t make it believable.

It was hard for me to believe that the real life weightlifters Daniel Lugo (played by Mark Wahlberg), Paul Doyal (played by Dwayne Johnson), and Adrian Doorbal (played by Anthony Mackie), would have seen themselves as comically stupid as these actors portrayed them to be. No matter how hard these actors tried to be serious in these roles, they exuded a humorous vein of the stupidity the real life characters couldn’t discern.

What the audience ends up with is some really funny stupidity scenes and the grossness of idiotic violence gone badly. Only Wahlberg seemed capable of portraying believable stupidity but only occasionally. These three guys are tired of their "just getting by existence" so they decide take all of Victor Kershaw’s (Tony Shalhoub) money and assets. T

hey eventually get the money and Victor, who survives the attempted killing by these goons. The cops don’t believe Victor’s story so he’s left to try to get his money back by himself. Then he happens to get ahold of a retired detective named Ed DuBois (Ed Harris) who believes him and begins to unravel the caper.

The boys run through their ill-gotten goods quickly and decide to hit another and, of course, this one falls apart quickly and they get caught.

Wahlberg is the most believable of the actors but the film’s direction didn’t have a clear vision. Johnson is OK but I didn’t buy his character's addictions and therefore I didn’t buy his character. Mackie was the weakest of the three and that might have been the intention because his real life character might have been somewhat wishy-washy. Shalhoub was good as the arrogant tough guy first victim. Harris was one of the better things of this film. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely wrote this script from a true story. Michael Bay misdirected this as the film never seemed to find a center.

Overall:  This film just didn’t work very well although there were some really funny bits.

Addmissions

First Hit:  This film felt disjointed, lacking depth in character development, with moments of laughter. A good romantic comedy is a wonderful and fun to watch. It is also one of the easier genres to do poorly. Despite having Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, two funny people who can make a romantic comedy work – it doesn’t work here. Yes there are very funny parts but they are few and far between. The failure here is that this film also wants to be taken seriously as a drama as well. The result is a film looking for a base/home genre and therefore lost. When Portia (Fey), who is a Princeton Admissions Director, is with her partner (living together for 10 years) Mark (Michael Sheen), the scenes were not believable. There is no way I bought that they even liked each other – let alone lived together for 10 years. In fact this whole part of the story and script could have been scrapped and the film would have worked. The basic premise is that Portia likes stability and not getting close to anyone. Rudd as John Pressman (a director in an alternative school) pushes for not being stable; he travels with his adopted son and lives in countries all over the world. Both of these people are rebelling against their parents. Portia’s mom Susannah (played by Lily Tomlin) is a rebel of society and stable life – she wants to push the envelope. Mrs. Pressman (Lisa Emery) is old school conservative money and her son John wants to be free and always keep moving. This could be enough for a romantic comedy, but then add Portia may have a son she’s never known and that Rudd might have to settle down – we mix too much drama and it fizzles.

Fey is occasionally good, but mostly neither funny nor dramatically interesting. Rudd is better as he doesn’t have as many hurdles to jump to make his role work. Travis Bratten (as Rudd’s adoptive son Nelson) is excellent. Nat Wolff is very good as a smart lost young man who wants to become part of something. Tomlin is good as Fey’s troubled and inspirational mother. Sheen was wasted in this role that wasn’t needed to make this film work. Karen Croner wrote an inadequate screen play that didn’t know what it wanted to be. Paul Weitz directed this an probably knew it was failing as he filmed and edited it together.

Overall:  Not really worth the money but there are enough laughs to want to watch this for free on a Sunday evening.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

First Hit:  Not very interesting, few laughs (except at the end) and difficult to care about the characters.

As much as the film tried to have the audience care about Burt (Steve Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) because they were picked on as kids, it never worked.

Watching their schmaltzy act in Las Vegas, I couldn’t see where anyone would come and see their act. Maybe if the acts were better, or maybe if there was another reason to care about them, it might have made a difference. But when watching a film and thinking “maybe if” to change the plot, there becomes the realization that there is something wrong.

The film picks up, especially in the absurdity arena, when Jim Carrey is introduced as Steve Grey a street magician who does very odd things including not going to the bathroom for an extended period of time – magic? Don’t think so but it is amusing.

For me the funniest bits were the scenes where they show moving audience members in and out of the theater.

Carell’s role was mediocre and he did his best with it. Buscemi was a little more interesting as Anton. Carrey was much more engaging in a very bizarre role – he was perfect for it. Olivia Wilde was OK in her limited and strangled role as magician’s assistant. Alan Arkin as old time magician Rance Holloway was the best part of the film from an acting point of view. Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley wrote a week script that could really find something to focus on so that the audience would care. Don Scardino did an adequate job of directing this poor script.

Overall:  Waiting 90 minutes for the funniest parts (for me) was a waste of my time.

Quartet

First Hit:  An overall entertaining film and at times truly enjoyable, but at times, it also suffered from being slow and without focus.

The setting is a home for retired English musicians of all types. Although the grounds of this home are immaculate as well as the home, the storyline has you believe that they are next to closing if they don’t get more money.

Despite that this storyline isn’t believable; it does provide a reason for these retired musicians to put a show to collect money. As they meet and practice, the film audience gets an opportunity to glimpse what their life is like as they age. The clarinet player suffers from heart problems but his love for playing music is all he wants to do. Voices of these aging opera singers don’t quite have the tonal quality nor do they hit the high notes like they use to but their love for the music and memories of how they use to be are ever present.

The story is mainly about Jean Horton (Maggie Smith) coming to live in the house. Her former husband Reginald Paget (Tom Courtenay) lives there and is upset that he wasn’t consulted about her coming to live there.

There is a strong story line about their history. Reginald’s friends Wilf (Billy Connolly) and Cissy (Pauline Collins) come up with an idea to have the four of them, including Jean, to sing as a quartet, like they did years earlier.

Resolving their differences is what brings the drama and the comedy is about how they see each other, act towards each other and how they see themselves.

Smith is resurrecting a roll she had in “Marigold Hotel”, grumpy and somewhat mean at the beginning then comes out of her shell. Overall it was OK. Courtenay was good as the former jilted husband of Smith. His most touching sequence was when he as teaching young kids about Opera. Connolly was the funniest of the actors and his shtick was to be a romancer or a wanna be romancer. Collins was very enjoyable as the memory challenged woman with a big heart. Michael Gambon as Cedric Livingston was a lot of fun as the directorial arrogant ringleader of the show. Ronald Hardwood wrote the screenplay and although uneven, overall it was good. Dustin Hoffman directed this and generally it was OK.

Overall:  This was an fun film to watch although a bit uneven.

Identity Theft

First Hit:  A general waste of time, not funny and does little to bring to light the prevalent issue of identity theft.

This film has an identity problem. It tries to be funny, point out the issue of identity theft, and tries to be heartwarming or meaningful. It is none of these.

Watching Diana (Melissa McCarthy) is like watching a train wreck, you know it’s going to happen, you know it will be catastrophic, and the only thing left is a mess. I’ve yet to see McCarthy be in anything interesting, intelligent or of value. She appears to specialize in uncultivated actions of an overweight person trying to fit in, be funny or the center of attention. Sandy Peterson (Jason Bateman) does his best to hold the film together but this is a match made hell.

The presentation of the subject and story is rarely interesting and mostly just grossly reaching for laughs.

McCarthy is horrible in this character and it there was nothing about her character that would make the audience be interested in her. The attempts to have Sandy’s kids like her were grossly obvious ploys to have us care about the character – too little too late. Bateman tried his best and did the best he could with the script, direction, and McCarthy. The moments he spends and communicates with his kids and wife Trish (Amanda Peet) are good and are the only things good in this film. Peet, in a minor role, was OK. Craig Mazin wrote a poorly conceived script. Seth Gordon tried to make the story interesting but the script, McCarthy, and idea were guaranteed to make this film fail.

Overall:  Not worth more than 5 minutes of anyone’s time.