In a World...

First Hit:  Although a bit rough in execution, it was very entertaining and adoringly quirky.

The title has to do with a marque saying in voiceover work. It was made famous by a legendary voice over man who has now passed on.

The man long considered the second in command in this field Sam (Fred Melamed) is going to receive a life achievement award for his work, while his daughter Carol (Lake Bell), who wants to do voiceover work gets very little work and has to make a living from doing voice coaching.

The voice over business is mostly controlled by men and it has its characters. Carol’s sister Jamie (Alexandra Holden) supports Carol by letting her stay with her and her husband Moe (Rob Corddry). In the studio that Carol uses for her minor voiceover work and coaching is an engineer named Louis (Demetri Martin) who likes Carol a lot but cannot seem to find the wherewithal to ask Carol out on a date.

As this story unfolds it is about how Carol gets some jobs and then lands the big one over the up and comer Gustav (Ken Marino) and her father.

Bell is great as Carol, wrote an interesting screenplay and directed herself and the other actors with an effortless that showed up in many scenes. Although some scenes didn’t seen complete, others will beautiful and well-acted (Carol staying ad Louis’ house was priceless). Melamed was perfect as the ego driven overindulged old timer of the business. Holden was very good as the sister who seemed to be struggling with her life but finds its base by learning from one mistake. Corddry was super as Holden’s supportive loving husband. Martin was really great as the guy who really wants to share his love but struggles to find the path.

Overall:  This film was fun, interesting, and a great start for Bell.

The Millers

First Hit:  Although not great, I enjoyed this film and many laughs came easily.

I was in the mood for something lighthearted and maybe with some substance. “The Millers” came through really well.

The substance is about learning about selflessness – movement away from selfishness. David (Jason Sudeikis) is a small time dime-bag marijuana dealer. He’s doing the same thing he’s been doing all his life. He only cares about himself and making the required sales. He’s worked for Brad (Ed Helms) for a very long time.

Brad is wealthy (he collects whales not cars) and is a jerk. David gets robbed trying to stop his neighbor Kenny (Will Poulter) from breaking up a street robbery of Casey (Emma Roberts) by some street punks. It’s Kenny’s good heart that put him in danger. When David decides to help and this kindness backfires on him.

Losing a lot of Brad’s money and pot, Brad gives David the option of picking up a bunch of pot in Mexico and bring it across the Mexican/US border OR be can be killed. If he does the smuggling job, he’s promised money, relief from his indebtedness to Brad, and maybe a little more freedom.

To make this happens, David hatches the idea that if he looked like a family man in a RV then the likelihood of being stopped at the boarder would be less. So he recruits Kenny, then Casey - who is homeless, and his neighbor Rose (Jennifer Aniston) to become his family on this adventure. He offers them some money. Rose is a stripper, hates her job and has been stilted both financially and emotionally by her past boyfriend.

With the promise of a payoff, this motley crew becomes “The Millers” and they trek off to Mexico to collect some pot and to make some money. But the situations that happen on the way drive them all to see that being part of a family has meaning for all of them.

What makes the story and funny situations work is excellent acting on all their parts.

Sudeikis is very good as a slacker, just selfishly going on with his life and slowly and sporadically finding that he cares about the family he put together for his profit.  Helms is great as the jerky drug dealer. Aniston is fabulous as a stripper, pretend mother, and as the grounding force of this film. Roberts is a delight and, like Aniston, segues from hardened loaner, to a girl wanting to be heard, seen and loved. Poulter was amazing and a real prize. His innocence and bravery was perfect. Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn as Don and Edie Fitzgerald fellow RV travelers were a great addition to the story. Bob Fisher and Steve Farber wrote a witty screenplay. Rawson Marshall Thurber provided a deft touch directing this ensemble cast of strong actors.

Overall:  This was every entertaining and definitely worth the price of admission.

2 Guns

First Hit:  From a tongue-in-cheek point of view, watching Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg work together was really fun.

The problem with this film is the script. There are just a few to many twists and turns to make this really hold together well.

However, the interaction between the two actors was wonderful. It seemed as though they probably had a gas working together. They were great in their characters as unidentified agents of the government.

Trench (Washington) is an undercover DEA agent who is attempting to set-up the arrest of Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos) a major cocaine dealer. Stigman (Wahlberg) is with a Navy investigative unit that is trying to recover money that was taken from a crime.

Together they decide to rob a bank for different unspoken reasons. What they end up doing is stealing a bank full of money put there by the CIA. Now the CIA area agent headed by Earl (Bill Paxton) who is a cruel man prone to using Russian roulette as a way to get people to talk. One of the lures to draw Trench deeper into the fray was his part-time lover Deb (Paula Patton).

So what the film tries to sort out is why the Navy, CIA, DEA and a drug cartel are fighting about $43.125 million dollars and how a friendship grew.

Washington is his usual strong centered intelligent character. Wahlberg is goofy bold in his approach to life and the mission. Paxton is excellent as the thuggish CIA lead. Olmos did a very good job of being the drug kingpin who needed to be taken down a notch. Patton was OK in her minor and pivotal role. Blake Masters wrote the convoluted screen play with enough comedy to redeem his effort. Baltasar Kormakur directed this team of top-notch actors and made it hold together by expanding the personality of the characters and using his actors well.

Overall:  This was an amusing film but any other two actors in the lead and this film fails.

The Spectactular Now

First Hit:  I thoroughly enjoyed this film and thought it was well crafted.

I had a friend in high school who acted a lot like Sutter (played by Miles Teller). My friend had a quick smile, drank quite a bit to become the life of the party, and didn’t seem to want to plan something for his future. He became a drunk and died, for the most part, alone.

Sutter drinks all the time. He’s a very young functional alcoholic. He goes to school, he works and attempts to have relationships, but all his girlfriends end up seeing the light that there is no future for them with him, so they drop him and move on.

This film is about his beginning to see how he is screwing up his life. What helps him? Aimee (Shailene Woodley) is a girl he actually begins to care about. In helping her stand up to her mom, she helps him find out about his dad Tommy (Kyle Chandler) as he begins to reconcile the truth and his mom’s version of the truth of his father.

His mom Sara (Jennifer Jason Leigh), had kept Sutter sheltered from his father because, his father didn’t care, drank too much, and never cared about the future. When he glimpses his future through his father he begins to realize that his life of drinking, blackouts, and non-commitment won’t work.

Teller was fantastic as the guy who doesn’t care except to have a good time, only to find out his life may add up to little in the end. Woodley is sublime. Her subtle opening up as the plain unpopular girl have her first time boyfriend was extraordinary. Chandler was perfect as the good-time guy who didn’t and won’t make anything of his life. Leigh was great in her one major scene as her son begins to figure out that if he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’ll keep getting what he is getting. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber wrote a very strong pointed screenplay. James Ponsoldt crisply and confidently directed this story and the actors.

Overall:  This was a very thoughtful film and experience.

R.I.P.D.

First Hit:  Just didn’t work.

Nick (Ryan Reynolds) is in love with his wife.

He’s a Boston Police Detective and gets tempted to steal some gold they find on a drug bust. He confronts his partner Hayes (Kevin Bacon) about the “rightness” of this. Hayes doesn’t want Nick to turn in the gold so he shoots his partner. Nick dies but ends up with other dead law enforcement officers who are living in this “other sort of world”.

In charge of this group of these dead officers is Proctor (Mary-Louise Parker). Why does this group of R.I.P.D. officers exist? To fight crime of people who really haven’t died and who attempt to make havoc on the world as it is.

Nick gets assigned to a new partner named Roy (Jeff Bridges) who has such a forced accent that it is nauseating. He was wronged just like Nick so there are here to work together to fight the undead. What makes it even worse is that people in the real world see Nick as a old Asian man and Roy as a voluptuous blond.

This story is such a reach and then to add that Hayes is one of these characters who are collecting enough gold to reign havoc on the world is simply an out-of-bounds reach. It is a stupid story although amusing at times.

Bridges is mediocre in this role and his accent is horrible. Bacon is the most amusing and interesting character in the film – his darkness prevails. Reynolds is stuck between a rock and hard place in this role and my guess he wishes he never took it. Parker is the best part of the film; her tongue in cheek approach was fun. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi wrote this mindless script and Robert Schwentke directed it, and I’m not sure why.

Overall:  A couple of laughs but overall a real waste of talented actors.