Unfinished Business

First Hit:  Funny, long winded at times, and a convoluted story that didn’t quite work.

Story starts with Dan (Vince Vaughn) leaving the company he works for because the person he works for, Chuck (Sienna Miller), is reducing his commission again. He storms out of the building and meets Timothy (Tom Wilkinson) who has been let go because of his age and Mike Pancake (Dave Franco) who is a challenged employee.

They agree to form a company together and go into direct competition against their old company. They believe they've scored a great contract but have to go to Germany to close the deal. When they get there they find out they are a fluffer (a company that is part of the bidding process to make a competitor, his old boss, look good).

However they decide they can win the contract and work to close the deal. What I thought was the funniest situation in this film was Dan having to stay in a museum as part of an art installation. His bed, everything, was able to be viewed through glass by the museum attendees. The name of the artwork he was installed in was American Businessman #42. Another funny scene was the steam bath scene.

There are also some very touching scenes of him and his son and daughter as they talk through life situations.

Vaughn was typical Vaughn and he’s really not a character in a movie but more of himself in a particular role. Fast-talking, occasionally intelligent, and mostly a wise ass. Miller has a minor role and was OK. Wilkinson was really pretty good in his role as the old codger who’s trying to get a little more out of his life before he dies. Franco was funny and carried off the naivety required with aplomb. Steve Conrad wrote an amusing script. Ken Scott’s direction was adequate.

Overall:  There were some funny bits, but overall it was a let-down.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

First Hit:  At times funny and joyous while at other times it seemed to be trying to tell too many sub-stories.

There is always a risk in creating a follow-on film because of the comparison between it and the original. Sometimes films move the same character into a totally different situation, others expand or further develop the original storyline. Here we have the later.

Making a success of the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, proprietor Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel) and Muriel Donnelly (Maggie Smith) have set their sights on adding a new hotel to their mix. They make a pitch for co-financing with a San Diego company.

Then we have Evelyn Greenslade (Judi Dench) and Douglas Ainslie (Bill Nighy) are still dancing around getting together as a couple – “we aren’t together, but we aren’t not together”. And, Madge Hardcastle (Celia Imrie) is still trying to decide whom to settle down with. Then there's Norman Cousins (Ronald Pickup) and Carol Parr (Diana Hardcastle) who are testing each other about the exclusivity or non-exclusivity of their relationship.

Besides these stories and other smaller stories and then there is the major story of Sonny and Sunaina (Tina Desai) planning and having their wedding - which is treated as a second hand story. Then there is this story about a hotel inspection by Guy Chambers (Richard Gere) who happens to fall in love with Sonny’s mother Mrs. Kapoor (Lillete Dubey). Their interaction lacked chemistry which is unfortunate because it could have been a interesting story (for a follow-on film).

There is a lot going on in the film and it’s great that the director wanted to tell something of all the stories, however it became distracting.

Patel is a wonderful personality and his joy in what he does brings his character to life. Smith is really great as a dour person. There are moments of shared internal dialogue that are wonderful as well. Dench is strong as someone who wants to reach out and is afraid to take the step. Nighy is amazing and is such a joy in this film. The film is much better with him in it. Imrie is really good as someone who is doing her best to settle down. Pickup was OK as someone who likes his fantasies but wants to be in reality. Hardcastle is strong as the woman who wants a full relationship but tries to be less monogamous. Desai is joyous to watch as the bride to be. Gere is OK as the hotel inspector want-to-be writer. While Dubey was just OK as Sonny’s mother. Ol Parker wrote the screenplay which was a bit too busy. John Madden captured lots of the Indian magic of Jaipur – one of my favorite cities in India.

Overall:  I enjoyed the film. I liked seeing the city of Jaipur again but felt that there were too many strong stories being expressed.

Focus

First Hit:  Despite the clichés, this film does have its surprises and overall was enjoyable.

I like con-films. One of my favorites, of course, is “The Sting”. This film does not have the acting that “The Sting” had, but it was very entertaining.

Will Smith as Nicky was raised by a con-man and has always lived the con-man life. He doesn’t allow anything to stick to him, personally, because that is the downside – stickiness leads to attachments and in his life attachments are not good. In walks Jess (Margot Robbie). She is also a con-artist but mostly focuses on picketing and tries to hustle Nicky.

He sees through the con, explains to her and her partner where they went wrong but see’s enough in her to have her audition to become part of a team that executes a set of cons and hustles in New Orleans during Super Bowl week. It was fun to watch the hustles and more fun to watch Smith intelligently swagger through this part. Although I suspected the ending, there was still enough of a twist that brought a level of humanity to it all.

Smith was perfect for this role, streetwise, smart, and having a level of humorous swagger to make it all work. This isn’t academy award type stuff, but it is enjoyable. Robbie is fun to watch and it appears that she probably had fun making this film – it showed. Adrian Martinez as Farhad, the computer nerd of the hustling group, was effective. Gerald McRaney was great as Owens. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa wrote and directed with film with enough humor and seriousness to make it fun to watch.

Overall:  I left the theater with a smile on my face, which is good enough.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

First Hit:  Tongue in cheek fun while being oddly good.

I didn’t know what to expect when the lights went down. The previews had me believing it was more serious than it ended up being.

That’s not to say it was a comedy, but there are times when either the visuals (heads exploding into a colorful fireworks display) or the lines the actors said (“this is my gun”) were spot on funny.

The film is about a group of wealthy gentlemen who decide they can make things right in the world through intervention, usually armed. The group makes it clear they are not part of any government and have only allegiance to what they believe is right. Michael Caine (playing the group’s leader Arthur – think King), gives each member a historical nickname such as Jack Davenport is “Lancelot”, Mark Strong is “Merlin”, and Colin Firth is Harry Hart AKA “Galahad”.

The opening sequence has a terrorist group holding a global warming expert Professor Arnold (Mark Hamill) hostage. A Kingsman comes in to save the day but gets killed by Gazelle (Sophia Boutella) who is an agent for Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson). Valentine decides that he cannot fix global warming and because people are the issue, if he gets rid of most the people on the planet global warming can be reversed.

The Kingsman are out to stop him and with the death of a Kingsman, they have to recruit a new one. Here is how we meet the next generation of Kingsman, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Roxy (Sophie Cookson). I liked having the front for their organization being an English haberdashery in London. The fighting scenes were well choreographed and it was fun to watch Firth be so agile, yet sophisticated in his actions.

Firth was excellent as the prime Kingsman and mentor. Caine was good as Arthur. There is a sophistication he brings that works for this film. Egerton was very good and strong as the young street kid who learns what it takes to become a Kingsman. Jackson was great and embodied the role as the guy who wants to kill (although indirectly) most everyone on the planet. Hamill was fun to see again – it has been years. Boutella was very good as Jackson’s henchman (woman). Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn wrote a fun and amusing script and Vaughn directed this strong cast and story with surety and fearlessness.

Overall:  I enjoyed the film when I saw it and it still resonated the next day. It was violently fun.

Mortdecai

First Hit:  What a wasted piece of fluff.

There is nothing interesting about the characters and with this cast it's shocking. Although I’m not a Johnny Depp (Mortdecai) fan here he is just bad with a bad script.

He plays an eccentric English Lord who is going broke and married to his college sweetheart Johanna (Gwyneth Paltrow). She rules the roost and there is little that tells the film’s audience why she is married to him. There is a second story in this film about him growing a mustache.

This is where the comedy comes in, from time to time. Ewan McGregor (another great actor) plays Martland a British investigator, friend of Mortdecai, and longs for Johanna. Really? Paul Bettany plays Mortdecai’s man servant Jock and he’s the best thing in the film. The storyline is bad and the acting, for the most part, is worse.

Depp is difficult to watch. The fake spacer between his front teeth was way too obvious and the character wasn’t interesting at all. Paltrow tried to rise above the character and film, but it just didn’t work. McGregor tried to play it straight but this role in this film as a waste of his energy. Bettany was fun to watch and made his scenes interesting. Eric Aronson wrote a silly script that didn’t have a good focus. David Koepp had a bad script, great actors and no idea where he was going.

Overall:  This was a waste of my time – as well as the actor’s time.