New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

Up In the Air

In Thank You For Smoking, director Jason Reitman (son of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman) gave us a very clever satire about a fast-tongued PR rep for the cigarette industry.  In Juno, he made a film that was both funny and moving about a quirky pregnant teenager.  Now comes Up In the Air, a movie about a corporate rep who jets around the country firing people for a living.  Put them together and you have a picture of a guy who has a real knack for pulling humor out of decidedly unfunny situations.  Accompanying Reitman’s sharp sense of humor is a talent for great character studies, and that’s on display in Up In the Air as well, as we’re treated to a terrific look at what happens when a charming narcissist has his world shaken up.

George Clooney plays said narcissist in the person of Ryan Bingham, a “corporate downsizer” who travels around the country firing people for bosses too afraid to do it themselves.  A bachelor, Ryan spends the vast majority of his time on the road and wouldn’t have it any other way.  He moonlights giving motivational speeches about the freedom that comes from a life without responsibilities.  He takes pride in his job and enjoys the no-strings-attached relationships he forms on the road.  However, his comfortable existence is shaken when fresh-faced new employee Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) is hired by his company to take their firing process over the internet, saving the company millions in travel expenses and bringing him home from the road – a terrifying prospect.  When Ryan counters to his boss by arguing that Natalie doesn’t know a thing about what they do, he’s ordered to take her along on a few jobs to show her the ropes.  While she’s learning the process, we learn quite a bit about Ryan through their clash of philosophy and personality.

As I said, the strength of Reitman’s films tends to be his wit and characters, and that’s the case again here.  Clooney is as good as he’s even been in a part that’s pitch-perfect for his charm, Kendrick (Twilight) nails both the look and attitude of an ambitious and optimistic college grad, and Vera Farmiga (The Departed) does equally well portraying a woman whom Bingham is smitten with and begins to see casually over the course of his travels.  All three garnered Oscar nominations for their performances and they were well-deserved.  What could have been a cliched clash-of-personalities comedy in lesser hands becomes a very authentic and engaging look at how what we value in life shapes who we are.  As you explore the lives of the three lead characters, I think you’ll see a lot of similarities to the outlooks of the people in our culture, if not people you actually know.  The humor of the tale is dry and wry, and the pace is a bit slow, especially out of the gate, so this probably won’t be a film with universal appeal.  If you’ve liked Reitman’s previous work, though, you’ll find yourself in familiar territory here.  The film has a more grounded, serious tone than Thank You For Smoking and I didn’t think it was quite as emotionally arresting as Juno, but it combines some of the vibes of both and I found it a pretty enjoyable movie.  Definitely worth a rental. – ***1/2 (out of 4)

Up In the Air is rated R for language and some sexual content.

New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

When it comes to animated films, there’s Pixar, and then there’s everybody else.  However, one of the gems of the “everybody else” category over the past decade has been Blue Sky Studios’ Ice Age series.  The tale of a mammoth, a sloth, and a sabre-toothed tiger trying to find their way in the world has already produced two fun little movies and the greatest prehistoric squirrel in cinematic history.  Last summer, the third film in the franchise came out and brought the characters face-to-face with dinosaurs.  The result, while not quite as good as the first two movies, is still an enjoyable ride.

Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Dennis Leary all return as Manny, Sid and Diego, the mismatched “herd” that forged an unlikely friendship over the first two films.  Manny is now married to she-mammoth Ellie (Queen Latifah), and the couple is expecting their first baby.  With Sid and Diego now having to head out on their own, Diego worries that he’s losing his predatory edge while Sid longs to be a parent himself.  While in a cave, Sid stumbles upon three large eggs and decides to raise them himself.  When the eggs hatch, three baby T-Rexes emerge, and eventually an angry mamma comes, snatches Sid and the eggs, and returns to an underground paradise where dinosaurs still thrive.  The rest of the crew must rush to rescue him before he becomes dino-chow.

The strength of Ice Age has always been the three lead characters (and the pitch-perfect silent comedy of Scrat), and they’re still entertaining here.  The combination of Leguizamo’s craziness and Romano and Leary’s straight-men (er…straight-mammals?) just works, and it provides for some great back-and-forth banter.  I didn’t find the story they’re thrown into quite as good this time – the whole dinosaurs-living-under-the-earth thing seemed a bit contrived.  We do get a nice new supporting character in Simon Pegg’s weasel, Buck, who I found much more entertaining than Ice Age 2‘s combination of Crash and Eddie (Sean William Scott and Josh Peck), who return for this one as well.  The story’s basically window-dressing, though.  The bottom line is, if you enjoyed watching the first two adventures of Manny, Sid and Diego and if you (like me) can’t get enough of Scrat desperately seeking his acorn, then you’ll enjoy the movie.  Dawn of the Dinosaurs doesn’t match the first two films,  but it’s still fun. – *** (out of 4)

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is rated PG for some mild rude humor and peril.

New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

It’s Complicated

I know I’m not supposed to say this, but a well-done chick flick now and then can actually be pretty good.  Sure, romantic comedies can often be dreadfully formulaic (I’m looking at you, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), but with some strong creative talent behind them they can be entertaining films.  I wrote a couple months ago about my admiration for Down With Love, I thoroughly enjoyed My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but perhaps more than anyone else in the genre I’ve enjoyed the films of Nancy Meyers.  In movies like What Women Want and the exceptional Something’s Gotta Give, Meyers has shown a talent for clever humor, interesting characters and strong storytelling.  So, I was interested a couple weeks back when we were together with family and sat down to watch her newest effort, It’s Complicated.  Sadly, though, this movie fails to live up to her previous work, primarily because of a story that takes a desperately sad view of romance, marriage and family.

Meryl Streep stars as Jane Adler, a divorcee who owns a successful bakery and has finally adjusted to being single again after her ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin) left her for a younger woman (Lake Bell) ten years prior.  When the family reunites for their son’s (Hunter Parrish) college graduation, an impromptu dinner between Jane and Jake turns into a surprising affair, placing Jane in the strange place of being the “other woman” to her ex’s young wife.  Relishing the role reversal but afraid of the consequence to her and her family, Jane must decide whether to leave things be or attempt to fall in love with Jake again.

First off, let me cover what works here.  The cast is great – Baldwin is simultaneously charming and despicable, which helps us sympathize more with Jane’s predicament.  That Streep is good goes almost without saying, and strong supporting performances are turned in by The Office‘s John Krasinski as the Alder’s son-in-law and Steve Martin as Jane’s architect and confidant.  The movie’s well-written, clever, and bears all the marks of Myers’ deft direction.  The story it tells, though, struck me as just plain bankrupt.  Jane and Jake treat marriage as a casual contract throughout the movie, chasing their own sexual escapades and personal freedom with little more than lip service to the fact that their behavior is destructive to those who love them most – a point that hits home during the movie’s final act.  The cardinal virtue on display is pursuing what feels right to you, consequences be damned.  While I found myself sympathizing with these characters on occasion (especially Jake, who realizes full-well he blew it with his family), their endless selfishness left me depressed by the movie’s end and overwhelmed the charm it had – a feeling shared by my wife, who is also usually a Meyers fan.  I couldn’t stop thinking about how more fidelity on the part of this couple could have significantly impacted their kids and even their own lives for the better.  If you want a case study on why our culture is so backwards in its view of love and marriage that provides some laughs along the way, then It’s Complicated would be a good choice.  However, simply as a movie, I found it a well-made disappointment. – ** (out of 4)

It’s Complicated is rated R for some drug content and sexuality.

I didn’t have a Featured Film last Friday, but I’ll try to make up for it with a review of a movie that’s currently making its theatrical run.  Thanks to a babysitter and some gift cards, Heather and I were able to make Saturday night a long-overdue date night and head out to dinner and a movie.  For the movie, the Steve Carrell-Tina Fey comedy Date Nightseemed like a poetically logical choice.  We’re both fans of Carrell and Fey’s improv brand of comedy, and the trailer for Date Night made us figure it was a potentially fun movie worth taking a chance on – especially when, thanks to that gift card, we wouldn’t be paying to see it.  It turned out to be a great choice.

Carrell and Fey star as Phil and Claire Foster, a decidedly average suburban couple.  Phil is a tax advisor, Claire’s a real estate agent, they’ve got two rambunctious kids, a nice place in the ‘Burbs, and a weekly tradition of going out for a date night to a the same familiar steakhouse.  Upon learning that their friends, the Sullivans (Mark Ruffalo and Kristin Wiig), are getting a divorce, Phil decides that he and Claire need to spice things up to avoid letting their marriage become stale and meeting a similar fate.  On their next date night, they skip the ol’ steakhouse for a swanky new Manhattan seafood joint, only to find they have no shot at getting a table.  When the hostess repeatedly calls for a no-show couple, Phil decides to impersonate the missing Tripplehorns, a plan that works perfectly until two thugs (Jimmi Simpson and Common)  show up at the table and, mistaking their identity, accuse them of stealing a flash drive from a mob boss (Ray Liotta).  Shootouts, high-speed chases and close calls ensue as the Fosters suddenly find themselves running for their lives and trying to figure out how to set their identity straight. 

As far as concepts for action-comedies go, this one is a knockout.  The setup feels clever and the balance between the funny and the dangerous is kept at just the right level, ensuring that the movie never veers off into the completely silly or the boderline disturbing (well, at least not disturbing in the dangerous sense).  Carrell and Fey play to their strengths as average Joes trying to keep their wits in overwhelming situations.  They have moments where they’re truly hilarious, letting their razor-sharp improv talents fly, and moments where they’re completely believable (and heartfelt) as the delightfully average couple that makes the whole movie work.  The supporting cast is nice – especially James Franco and Mila Kunis as the drugged-out real Tripplehorns and Mark Wahlberg as a perpetually-shirtless security expert.  For all the one-liners and sight gags, though, what really makes this film a winner is the fact that it doesn’t despise the small things.  Most movies would portray a couple like the Fosters as some variation of dysfunctional, but yet here is a movie that actually casts an admiring eye on a perfectly mundane suburban marriage, on two unspectacular people who, in the midst of their daily grind, are very much in love with each other.  It gives a sweet and earnest undertone to what would otherwise be just a screwball comedy.  Heather and I both really enjoyed the movie, and we came out of it talking about the fact that a couple who has been married for a few years would likely find it especially enjoyable.  Date Night is a movie that’s a lot more pro-family than a lot of what passes for family entertainment these days.  That’s not to say that this is one you’ll want to take the kids to (the PG-13 is earned), but if you’re looking for something fun to see on your next date night, well, you get the point. - ***1/2 (out of 4)

Date Night is rated PG-13 for sexual and crude content throughout, language, some violence and a drug reference.

New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

The Big Lebowski

As I’ve written before, I’m usually a fan of any film made by the Coen brothers.  It’s been repeatedly brought to my attention, though, that one of my shortcomings as a Coens fan is the fact that I hadn’t seen one of their hallmark films, The Big Lebowski. The movie is quite eccentric, even for the Coens (and that’s saying something), but it has found a cult following that likely exceeds all their other work.  So, to rectify my deficiency, last Saturday night while Heather was at work my friend Josh and I rented the movie.  What we found was a movie that was one of the most bizarre films I’d ever seen, but an undeniably enjoyable experience.

The movie centers around The Dude (Jeff Bridges).  Real name Jeffery Lebowski, The Dude is an unemployed, perpetually high slacker who spends most of his time bowling with a couple of his friends – Walter (John Goodman), a Vietnam vet with rage issues, and Donny (Steve Buscemi), a dim-witted doormat.  A case of mistaken identity gets The Dude in over his head, though, when men break into his house seeking to extract money from the free-spending trophy wife of a local millionaire who also happens to be named Jeffery Lebowski.  After The Dude heads to see the other Lebowski in an effort to get his rug replaced, he finds that Lebowski’s wife has been kidnapped, and Lebowski enlists The Dude as the delivery man in her ransom.  This starts The Dude on a crazy journey as he meets one bizarre character after another in an attempt to save the woman – and his own skin.

If you’ve seen a Coen film like Fargo with all its eccentricities, perhaps the best way I know to describe Lebowski is to imagine that film with the quirky factor cranked up to eleven, as the Spinal Tap guys might say.  Every character is a sight to behold, from the aforementioned leads to supporting characters like Lebowski’s on-edge butler (Philip Seymour Hoffman), his artist daughter (Julianne Moore), and a crazy pedophile bowler named Jesus (John Turturro, who may never have played a normal person in a movie in his life).   The film’s best moments are its character moments, with the Coens’ clever dialogue and eye for the absurd on full display throughout.  However, the narrative that strings the characters together feels thin throughout, and the downside of having such out-there characters is the fact that they can often be difficult to invest in.  This results in a movie that carries the audience along from dry joke to dry joke with some serious slow points in-between.  In the end, it was more engaging listening to Sam Elliott’s stranger talk about the tale than it was watching the tale itself.  This is a movie, though, that is worth the price of admission simply for the cast of characters that only the Coen brothers could put onscreen.  Fair warning – the movie is profanity-laden throughout (if you’ve seen Fargo, you know about what to expect) and there are several scenes involving nudity as well.  This is a movie that will certainly have a niche audience (that’s the definition of a cult film, after all), but if you get that niche, you’ll have a good time.  – *** (out of 4)

The Big Lebowski is rated R for pervasive strong language, drug content, sexuality and brief violence.

New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

Land of the Lost

Last weekend, we spent a few days in Illinois with my friend Corey and his family.  Sunday afternoon, we sat down to watch a movie, and Corey raved about last summer’s Will Ferrell vehicle Land of the Lost.   Every review I’d read of the film was some variation on “awful,” and Corey’s cinematic taste hasn’t always matched up with mine (the three hours I spent watching Brazil remain among the most puzzling of my life), but we decided to give it a whirl.  I’m actually glad we did.  When it was over, Heather remarked “That might be the worst movie I actually enjoyed watching.”  That sums it up pretty well – I don’t know that I can call Land of the Lost a good movie, but it was fun.

The remake of the 70’s TV show stars Ferrell as Dr. Rick Marshall, an eccentric paleontologist with a bizarre theory about time warps holding the key to the future of humanity.  After a less than stellar interview with Matt Lauer on The Today Show, Marshall descends into obscurity, ridiculed by the scientific community.  He’s approached one day by research assistant Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel), who believes in his theory and has been inspired by his work.  She convinces him to build his time traveling device, eventually landing them in an alternate dimension – along with an unwitting amusement park worker (Danny McBride).  Once there, they struggle to survive the world’s bizarre environment and fight to stop Marshall’s work from being used to start an interdimensional war.

Yep, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds – intentionally so.  Perhaps no movie I’ve ever seen takes itself less seriously than Land of the Lost does.  That’s a good thing, and Ferrell’s humor is a nice fit for it.  His shtick is starting to get a little old – and it feels that way at times here – but in short bursts there are still few actors who are funnier.  Most of Ferrell’s movies have the feel of a giant inside joke to which we are outside observers, and this one is no different.  Sometimes they work (Blades of Glory), sometimes they don’t (Anchorman), and while Land of the Lost is somewhere in the middle, it’s closer to the former than the latter.  The whole film has a nice camp feel, and while some of the special effects are digital and pretty good (the T-rex and the brilliantly realized landscapes come to mind), some purposefully evoke the dated vibe of the old show (such as the reptilian Sleestak creatures).  It all combines to give the film a surrealist feel, and something about that tone paired with the comedic style just works.  It takes a while to get going (it wasn’t until about 30 minutes or so in that I started to really enjoy it), but once it establishes itself it’s not a bad quirky little comedy.  Fair warning to those who fondly remember watching the show on Saturday mornings – this movie isn’t for kids.  The content earns every bit of its PG-13 and pushes it a bit in spots.  It’s not on the level of a Judd Apatow comedy, but some viewers might find the language and sexual content a bit much, especially for a movie inspired by a kids’ show.  All-in-all, though, while Land of the Lost won’t be making anybody’s ten-best list and it won’t be a hit for everyone, if you aren’t already sick of Will Ferrell it’s worth a rental. – *** (out of 4)

Land of the Lost is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, and for language including a drug reference.

New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

Down With Love

Last week, I didn’t get around to posting a featured film. So this week, I’ll jump on the Valentine’s Day train a little late and post a rom-com for any couples looking to rent something this weekend. Director Peyton Reid’s 2003 comedy Down With Love flew under the radar during it’s original release, but it went down as one of my favorite romantic comedies to date. Playing off of the Rock Hudson/Doris Day sex comedies of the 60s with brilliant effect, Down With Love pays homage to the genre while staying clever, stylish, and unique.

It’s the 1960s, and feminist author Barbara Novak (Renee Zellweger) is turning society upside down with her new book, Down With Love. She advocates women abandoning the girlish dreams that have put them behind in the workplace and using their intelligence and sexuality to take control of their lives. This infuriates writer and suave, swingin’ ladies’ man Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor), who makes it his mission to go undercover and romance Barbara, writing an expose that proves she’s a fraud who only wants what every other woman does. Catcher begins romancing Barbara and starts to reel her in, only to find that his feigned feelings start to run a little deeper than he’d planned.

Sure, the setup isn’t far from all the other romantic comedies out there, but let’s be frank – it is arguably the most formulaic genre out there. Where Down With Love soars is in the execution of the material. The film absolutely nails the style and feel of its inspiration, with the whole 60s vibe carrying over in characterization, cinematography, pacing and tone. Reed does such a good job helming this picture that you could drop Hudson and Day in instead of McGregor and Zellweger and they’d be a perfect fit. That said, both of the leads are fantastic, as is their supporting cast – especially David Hyde Pierce of Frasier fame as Catcher’s right-hand man. The musical choices nail the period, and there’s even an infectiously catchy musical number at the end sung by the two leads (who, incidentally, were both coming off performances in hit musicals). The movie is funny, charming, and simply one of those experiences that just leaves you with a big smile on your face when it’s over. I’m not a big fan of most romantic comedies, but this one is pitch-perfect. My only caveat in this review is the fact that my then-girlfriend-now-wife Heather really didn’t care for it. It put us in a bit of role-reversal mode, but I still maintain that this is a fantastic movie that deserved far more of an audience than it got. If you and your significant other find yourself looking for a rental this weekend, give this one a shot. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, even if my wife disagrees. – **** (out of 4)

Down With Love is rated PG-13 for sexual humor and dialogue.

New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

Finding Nemo

My little girl is now at that age where she becomes absolutely enthralled by movies.  As in, wants to watch the same movie over and over and over again.  This fact has the very real possibility of driving Heather and I absolutely insane, depending on what movies she attaches herself to.  Thankfully, her favorite as of late has been Pixar’s classic Finding Nemo.  We’ve watched “Meemo” more times over the past couple weeks than I care to count, but seeing the movie for the first time(s) in quite a while has reminded my how great it is and just why I still consider it the greatest animated film ever made.

For the uninitiated, Nemo (voice of Alexander Gould) is a clownfish, and the only son of Marlin (Albert Brooks).  After a tragic beginning to his life left Nemo without his mom and with a gimpy fin, Marlin has become the most overprotective father in the ocean.  Nemo is growing up and ready to start school, which has Marlin absolutely terrified.  Nemo comes to resent his dad’s doting, and one day an act of defiance gets him nabbed by a diver, who whisks him away on a boat right before his dad’s eyes.  While Nemo adjusts to life in a dentist’s fishtank, Marlin , aided by an absent minded fish named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), frantically crosses the ocean in search of his lost son, meeting countless colorful creatures along the way.

Director Andrew Stanton, who also helmed 2008′s excellent WALL-E and has contributed in some form to just about every Pixar film, balances humor, emotion, and visual magnificence to create a flat-out masterpiece.  Like all of Pixar’s work, this movie is inhabited by real characters, not just cartoon cutouts.  By the end of the movie, I find myself deeply moved by the story of a fish father and son, whether it’s my first viewing or my 50th.  You’ll quickly find yourself seeing past the fins and gills and looking at characters that are endearing because of just how real the seem.  The voice cast deserves major kudos, with DeGeneres turning in a particularly good performance and the cast of characters inhabiting the dentist’s tank – which includes Willem Dafoe, Allison Janney, and Brad Garrett – ensuring that the film doesn’t miss a beat when its focus transitions from Marlin to Nemo.  There are some brilliantly sly and funny moments (the movie’s ending induces a grin every time I see it), but kids will find it just as funny as adults thanks to some great slapstick moments as well.  If you’ve got kids – or heck, even if you don’t – you owe it to your family to see this movie.  If you’ve got to watch a movie over and over and over again, it might as well be this one. – **** (out of 4)

Finding Nemo is rated G.

New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

Hot Fuzz

Back in 2004, a British comedy called Shaun of the Dead made its way across the Atlantic and found an audience here in the U.S.. I was in college at the time, and my roommates and I absolutely loved the film’s brilliantly clever mash up of romantic comedy and apocalyptic zombie thriller. I considered Shaun perhaps my favorite comedy of all time. Then, in 2007, the team of director Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunited for Hot Fuzz, a send-up of buddy cop movies. Hard as it is to say, it’s actually better than their first outing. I watched it again over the holidays with my sister-in-law, and there are few comedies out there that hold up as well over multiple viewings.

Pegg (who has found an increasing audience in the U.S. with roles in Mission: Impossible III and Star Trek) stars as Nicholas Angel, a supercop from London who is without question and in every aspect the finest officer in the service. Concerned about his excellence making them look bad, his superiors assign him to a sergeant’s position in the sleepy country village of Sandford. None-too-happy about his reassignment, Angel adjusts to crime-free life in the country, his laid-back new boss (Jim Broadbent), and his dim-witted, action-movie obsessed new partner Danny (Frost). However, all is not well in Sandford. During a series of seemingly freak accidents, Angel is convinced there is a killer on the loose. With the rest of the village skeptical, Angel begins and investigation to get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings.

The biggest difference between a Pegg/Frost/Wright parody and most others is the fact that these guys actually love and admire the films they’re sending up. Rather than the cheap and dumb gags of the Scary Movie series, Hot Fuzz mocks the conventions of buddy action films while simultaneously paying homage to them.  The film is staged and shot as if it is one of the movies it’s skewering, and there are countless subtle bits of humor to go along with some of the more over-the-top gags.  Pegg and Frost are excellent as the lead pair once again, and they get nice support from the rest of the cast, headlined by Broadbent and James Bond himself, Timothy Dalton, as a semi-shady supermarket owner.  The film is extremely well-written by Wright and Pegg, providing some great sequences of witty banter throughout.  The movie’s highlight, though, is it’s no-holds-barred third act, when – much like Shaun of the Dead – it turns into a barrage of well-shot action.  Don’t think that means that the funny stops, however, as the film’s carefully executed buildup makes the last 30 minutes one of the funniest stretches I’ve ever seen put on film.  The language in this one is pretty strong and the movie is filled with the same over-the-top gore that marked Shaun, so if you’re squeamish or easily put off by profanity you’ll probably want to take a pass here.  Otherwise, I don’t see many people watching Hot Fuzz and not being entertained.  It earns my highest recommendation. – **** (out of 4)

Hot Fuzz is rated R for for violent content including some graphic images, and language.

New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

Thank You For Smoking

If he didn’t already have a name for himself (being the son of Ghostbusters and Kindergarten Cop director Ivan Reitman), director Jason Reitman would certainly be making on after his surprise 2007 hit Juno.  He’s got another comedy with some good buzz, Up In the Air, hitting theaters this weekend, but before both of them he made a nice little satiric gem in 2006 called Thank You For Smoking.  Taking a razor-sharp eye and clever wit to many facets of American life – including the government, Hollywood, and the PR machine), Thank You For Smoking is the rare film that can skewer just about everybody without ever coming off as preachy or heavy-handed.

The movie centers on Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), a fast-talking charmer of a lobbyist for Big Tobacco.  Nick’s the PR director for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, a research group funded by the cigarette companies and charged with investigating the link between smoking and lung cancer.  Unsurprisingly, they find none.  As congress, led by crusading Senator Finisterre of Vermont (William H. Macy),  begins a push to marginalize the tobacco industry, Nick goes on the offensive, cozying up to a newspaper reporter (Katie Holmes) and pitching Hollywood execs to put cigarettes back in the cinema in an attempt to revive their coolness.  All the while, Nick attempts to work on his relationship with his son (Cameron Bright), only to find that some of his character traits don’t seem nearly as nice when seen in his kid.

The movie is extremely well-written, but it wouldn’t mean a lick if the cast wasn’t as extraordinary as it is.  Eckhart oozes charm as Naylor, but also does a good job of portraying a man who is starting to second guess whether his ability to compartmentalize his morality is really a good thing.  The rest of the ensemble is as entertaining as it is extensive – J.K. Simmons as Nick’s boss (basically playing his Spider-Man character turned up an extra-notch), Rob Lowe as a movie producer, Sam Elliot as an aging Marlboro Man, Maria Bello and David Koechner as Nick’s alcohol and firearm lobby compatriots, and even Robert Duvall as an old tobacco baron.  While satire can easily descend too far into stereotype and heavy-handedness, that’s never the case here.  These characters are just real enough for their skewering to sting just a bit, but ridiculous enough that we can still laugh at them – while seeing some of their traits and flaws in ourselves.  Comedy is as subjective a genre as they come, but I’ve got a feeling that if you’ve ever found yourself rolling your eyes at the way our society approaches just about anything of substance, you’ll find a few laughs here.  Before you head out to see Up In the Air, give Thank You For Smoking a rental. – ***1/2 (out of 4)

Thank You For Smoking is rated R for language and some sexual content.