Category Archives: Action Comedy

Novocaine

Jack Quaid has a problem. Or is it I who has the problem?

His highly entertaining new action/adventure film Novocaine is well-crafted and Quaid’s character is developed a bit more than is typical in movies like this one.

But throughout the screening of Novocaine almost every time Quaid appeared onscreen I saw… Bill Hader. They have similar builds, similar hairlines and even some similar facial expressions. Does anybody else have the Hader issue with Quaid or is it just me?

The movie is a treat for fans of violence, chases, gunplay, hand-to-hand combat and all that sort of stuff. It’s a real adrenaline rush. And there are laughs along the way, too.

Nathan Caine (Quaid) is a guy with weird genetic disorder: he cannot feel pain. This has led to some behavioral quirks. He won’t even eat solid food for fear of chewing off his tongue and not feeling it. His only friend is a fellow gamer Roscoe (Jacob Batalon), a guy he’s never actually met except online. 

Nate hooks up with a coworker Sherry (Amber Midthunder) who also has issues from a dysfunctional upbringing. They work at a bank in San Diego where Nate is assistant manager. Novocaine starts out as a sweet romcom.

Then a robbery occurs. The bank manager is killed. Several cops are gunned down. Sherry is taken as a hostage. Nate heads off in pursuit to rescue her—in a police car.

His effort takes him to a commercial kitchen with hot grease and a hot frying pan, a house filled with booby traps and a tattoo parlor where Nate takes on a tattoo artist who is a mountain of a man.

Co-directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen and writer Lars Jacobson keep the momentum going from the robbery to the final face off on the San Diego docks. The work done by the film’s stunt coordinators is impressive.

Hader—um, sorry, Quaid—is good at comedy AND violence and at mixing the two in the same scene. Batalon’s first onscreen appearance late in the movie is a key element in the plot. And Midthunder is revealed to have abilities beyond being just a sweet, demure young babe.

Among the supporting players are familiar faces Matt Walsh and Betty Gabriel as San Diego cops. 

Novocaine is rated R.

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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

A quest! To throw as many fantastic, magical happenings as can be crammed into just over two hours at a movie audience!

And to follow four likable questers as they try to avoid dungeons and dragons and evil wizards and other forms of peril. Throw in a few chuckles along the way. Result: success!

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves works on many levels, among them—with one notable exception—its casting. Chris Pine is Edgin who is seeking a magical tablet to bring his dead wife back to life. Pine is handsome but he can do the action stuff. Michelle Rodriguez is Holga, a fierce female who helps Edgin recruit two younger team members: aspiring sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith) and Doric (Sophia Lillis) who is an elf and a shape shifter.

The quartet faces challenge after challenge and has outrageous experiences and surprises, some of which may remind you of magical things you’ve seen in the Lord Of The Rings movies, the Harry Potter movies and even Game Of Thrones. Teleportation, reviving dead people, fending off monsters, etc. 

The exception to the film’s clever casting is Hugh Grant as Forge who starts the story as a rogue but becomes a lord. Grant is an excellent actor. Charming. Funny. But he’s badly miscast here. Did the producers feel they needed another big name? Is he supposed to be eye candy for moms and grandmas who bring their kids to the movie? Hard to justify.

Speaking of kids… D & D: H A T is rated PG-13. Little ones may be spooked by some of the scary bits. But I know that preteens today have seen more wild and weird stuff than I had seen when I and even my own kids were in that age range. So parental guidance is in order here.

Full disclosure: I have never played D & D but I have several family members who have told me in great detail about campaigns that they have been part of. Remember this is a movie, not a board game. It works as a movie.

The budget was $151 million and it shows. Almost all of the effects look great. Co-directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein have to be anxious to see how audiences respond to this movie that has been sitting on the shelf for nearly two years. My guess is they will be happy. Not just that the film is now finally released but also that box office and buzz will be good. 

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Stuber

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The first ever “Cops And Ubers” movie? I think so!

Stuber pulls that old sitcom and buddy movie trick of pairing two extremely different guys and watching the sparks (and, in this case, bullets as well) fly as the conflicts just keep on coming.

Stuber is funny. It is violent. Stu (Kamail Nanjiani) is a sporting goods clerk who moonlights as an Uber driver. (Hence the nickname Stuber, given by his boss.) Victor (Dave Bautista) is cop with a vendetta. Stu is a generally mellow fellow. Victor is not.

Stu’s concerns are getting a 5-star rating from each of his passengers and taking his relationship with his girlfriend into the serious zone. Victor’s concerns are avenging the death of his partner and attending his daughter’s gallery opening of her sculptures.

What Stu hopes to be a brief trip with Victor turns into a longer ride with confrontations along the way. Among the highlights is a cartoonish battle in the sporting goods store—items are thrown, heads are bashed and it’s hilarious.

Also in the cast are Natalie Morales (not the NBC-TV newswoman) as Victor’s daughter Nicole, Betty Gilpin as Stu’s girlfriend Becca and Mira Sorvino as policewoman Angie.

Is there sufficient chemistry between Nanjiani and Bautista to take this duo further? Both actors have a lot on their plates right now but a reuniting of the two a few years down the road could have possibilities.

Director Michael Dowse and writer Tripper Clancy cram a lot of plot and action into a fast-moving 90 minutes. Of course, Stuber is rated R.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Old Man And The Gun

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The Old Man And The Gun has all those classic indy film elements: quirky characters, quirky plot, a few slow periods where little happens, a mediocre song and a general low budget look.

But this one also has Robert Redford! He may have lost some speed on his fastball, but he still cuts an impressive figure on a movie screen. And he is fun to watch in this one. (Redford just turned 82 in August, FYI.)

Forrest Tucker (Redford) was a real life bank robber. (Not to be confused with the “F Troop” actor.) For Tucker, robbing banks is a bit of a sport. He’s polite to bank staff (and to the authorities who arrest him), not like the fearsome trigger-happy criminals often seen in films and on TV.

As he flees the film’s opening heist, Tucker stops to help a woman whose truck is broken down on the side of the road. He invites her to join him for a bite. So begins his relationship with Jewel (Sissy Spacek). She is charmed and they begin to get together often for apparently non-carnal reasons.

Casey Affleck mumbles his way through his role as Dallas police detective John Hunt. After the feds take over the pursuit of Tucker, Hunt sniffs out Tucker’s backstory, which features a life of crime and incarceration. Also in the cast are Tucker’s sometime accomplices played by Danny Glover and Tom Waits.

For a movie about a bank robber, with car chases and other tense situations, The Old Man And The Gun is relatively light entertainment. Redford’s smiles and chuckles play a big part in softening the feel of the film.

David Lowery is the movie’s writer/director. He did an interesting crime drama I enjoyed (also featuring Affleck’s mumbles) in 2013 with the puzzling title Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.

Supposedly this is to be Redford’s last movie. But, as with many music acts who’ve had farewell tours and then later reappeared on stage, there’s a Bond title that applies here: Never Say Never Again. Whether he returns to the screen again or doesn’t, it’s good to have one of one of filmdom’s greats back in a starring role right now.

 

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Logan Lucky

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If you could stand a bit of fun escapism right about now, here’s Steven Soderbergh to the rescue!

Logan Lucky is like his films Ocean’s Eleven (and Twelve and Thirteen), but different. Danny Ocean’s caper crews were slick and smart. The Logan brothers and their co-conspirators are West Virginia rednecks who do not appear to be all that bright.

The Logans are definitely not lucky. Jimmy (Channing Tatum) suffered a football injury back in the day and his resulting limp gets him fired from a construction job at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (“Liability” issues he’s told.) His brother Clyde (Adam Driver) lost half his left arm in Mideast fighting and tends bar.

Together they devise a scheme to steal a huge amount of money from the NASCAR track during the Memorial Day weekend race.

The caper is crafty, but the characters and cast members who populate those roles are the real charm here. Like Max Chilblain (Sean MacFarlane), a wealthy, obnoxious, egomaniacal NASCAR sponsor. Prison warden Burns (Dwight Yoakam) is the type of administrator who doesn’t like to acknowledge problems. There’s Jimmy’s ex (Katie Holmes) who has remarried rich and shares custody of their daughter. Also in the cast are Hillary Swank, Katherine Waterston and Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough.

But the big casting story is Daniel Craig with bleached hair as explosives expert Joe Bang. When recruited for the job, he points out to the Logans that he is “in-car-cer-ated.” But the Logans have a workaround for that small problem. The usually taciturn Craig appears to enjoy letting loose in the role.

Logan Lucky is full of fun and funny surprises, which I won’t ruin here. As with his Ocean’s flicks, director Soderbergh keeps the action moving fast which lets certain less plausible plot elements zip quickly by. The end result is a satisfying two-hour break from real life, something many of us are in great need of.

 

 

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The LEGO Batman Movie

In a movie that’s more fun than funny, The LEGO Batman Movie centers around Batman’s (Will Arnett) relationships: With longtime villain The Joker (Zach Galifianakis), with Robin (Michael Cera), with Commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) and with Albert (Ralph Fiennes).

From all the live action Batman movies, particularly those directed by Christopher Nolan, we know that Batman/Bruce Wayne has an austere personality. Despite his wealth and luxurious surroundings, he is a private individual whose innermost thoughts are known to few.

The LEGO Batman Movie takes viewers inside Wayne Manor for a peek at Batman’s private life which includes an affinity for romcoms—one in particular. You may be interested to learn Batman enjoys eating Lobster Thermidor.

The film also touches on the rivalry between Batman and Superman (Channing Tatum) and a device Superman has that transports evildoers to the “Phantom Zone.”

The LEGO Batman Movie is ever kinetic with an abundance of energy and over-the-top effects including many explosions. As with 2014’s The Lego Movie, the depiction of characters both well known and unknown via Legos is exceedingly clever.

And, as with its predecessor, you don’t have to have spent time playing with Legos to appreciate The LEGO Batman Movie. Although, having watched my two sons and my grandson play with Legos for hours, I have a warm spot in my soul for these wonderful building blocks (and their accessories).

Whereas the earlier film ended with a heartwarming live action father/son interaction, the new release does not contain such warm and fuzzy emotion wrangling. The 2014 film exceeded expectations and delivered surprise after surprise. The LEGO Batman Movie does not outpace expectations but comes close to fulfilling them. As noted at the top, it’s fun if not overwhelmingly funny. (Although the four 12-year-old girls sitting behind me at my screening—and giggling often—might beg to differ.)

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The Nice Guys

The Nice Guys is not a direct descendant of the Lethal Weapon movies but it might be a first cousin. And it’s a casual acquaintance of Boogie Nights.

Some of my favorite movies are L.A. detective stories, including a few bad ones. The Nice Guys is a good one. Set in 1977 with a cool 70’s soundtrack, the film features title characters who are not quite as hardened as most other L.A. movie detectives.

Holland March (Ryan Gosling) is a bumbling, hard-drinking single father. His precocious and cute 13-year-old daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) is the brains of the family (and the better driver).

Jackson Healy (a pudgier-than-usual Russell Crowe) is an enforcer who comes calling to damage Holland but goes on to partner with him as they work to solve a caper.

The film opens with a young boy checking out a babe named Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio) in a girlie mag when a car slams through his house. He sees the real life version of the foldout babe, tossed from the car and partially unclothed. She dies, setting the plot in motion.

Another babe, Amelia (Margaret Qualley) is trying to escape from a number of people who would silence her quest to end smog in L.A. One of those people is her mother Judith (Kim Basinger), a federal agent supposedly trying to bust the auto industry for violating EPA regs.

(The 62-year-old Basinger won an Oscar for her work with Crowe in another period piece film set in the same town, 1997’s L.A. Confidential. Her latest performance doesn’t make nearly as strong an impression.)

The Nice Guys’ plot is clever but the main reason to see the film is the newly-hatched partnership between Holland and Healy. There’s verbal and physical humor. My favorite bit involves Holland in a bathroom stall trying to manage his newspaper, his gun, his cigarette, the stall’s door and his pants at the same time. It’s a classic piece of business. A couple of the large scale tumbles Holland takes end with lucky landings.

Shane Black wrote and directed The Nice Guys. He wrote the first Lethal Weapon movie and is credited with creating those characters. He also wrote and directed Iron Man 3.

Gosling and Crowe are two of our most charismatic actors. Their onscreen chemistry is not quite a home run, but there’s enough going on here to suggest those two characters might be worth another go-around. It’s not a “must see” movie, but it’s a lot of fun! (With a healthy dose of violence, car crashes, explosions and all that other action film stuff.)

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Hot Pursuit

 

Hot Pursuit is a disappointment. It’s not funny. Just minutes into the show, it becomes obvious that the film, which is essentially one extended chase scene, is going nowhere.

Policewoman Cooper (Reese Witherspoon) and drug lord wife Daniella Riva (Sofia Vergara) are travel mates in this would-be madcap comedy. Like last year’s Tammy, the set up is okay, the stars are likable, but the movie, ultimately, is a failure.

Cooper is assigned to escort Riva to Dallas where her drug lord husband is set to testify against a former partner. But the pickup is botched when gangs burst in with guns blazing. Cooper and Riva escape and take to the road in a classic Cadillac convertible, the first of several vehicles they’ll use to get to their destination.

Witherspoon, despite being raised in Nashville, speaks with a southern accent that sounds inauthentic. Vergara, brings little beyond her Modern Family TV persona to her role. Neither excels at physical comedy. Hot Pursuit is a mess.

Who gets the blame? Director Anne Fletcher delivered another bad road trip movie The Guilt Trip (with Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand) in 2012. The writers David Feeney and John Quaintance are veterans of (mostly failed) TV sitcoms. With the exceptions of comedians Jim Gaffigan and Mike Birbiglia in small roles, the supporting cast has no real charm.

Witherspoon and Vergara have producer and executive producer credits, so they are among the culprits.

I’ll concede there are a handful of chuckles, but if you want big laughs you won’t find them here. (Even the outtakes that are shown during closing credits are not funny.) Do not pursue.

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Kingsman: The Secret Service

 

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a ton of fun! It’s action-packed and full of surprises. It moves at a frantic pace and never slows down until its final postscript. Like last year’s Lego Movie, Kingsman: The Secret Service is a better movie than we usually get in February.

Harry Hart (Colin Firth) aka Galahad is the dapper, well-dressed ops director of the secret spy organization that works out of a men’s clothing store in London. The versatile Firth is, as the British say, “spot on” in this role.

Following the death of a colleague in a 1997 mission, he gives a medallion and contact information to the man’s young son Eggy. Years later, now in his early 20s, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) needs help getting out of a jam and calls Galahad who takes care of the situation. When Kingsman agent Lancelot (Jack Davenport) is killed in action, Galahad recruits Eggsy to try out for a position. The competition is tough and Eggsy works hard to succeed.

When the film’s villain Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) is introduced, he is apparently a good guy, an environmental warrior. But his method for saving the planet involves eliminating much of the world’s human population. He scores good will by giving the entire world free wi-fi and internet—but there’s an evil motive to his generosity.

Galahad consults with Kingsman chief Arthur (Michael Caine) who suggests Galahad learn more about Valentine. At their first meeting, the dinner scene is a classic. (I’m tempted to share more, but… alas, no spoiler from me.)

K:TSS recalls early James Bond films, but in a more appreciative fashion than the Austin Powers movies did. As Q does in the Bond films, Galahad introduces Eggsy to amazing spy devices. Villain Valentine has an impressive mountaintop lair, complete with an airplane landing strip in a cave. And there’s the promise of a sexual payoff for the story’s hero, a la 007.

Kingsman: The Secret Service contains numerous memorable and bloody fight scenes. They are cartoonish and, in many case, quite funny. Director Matthew Vaughn (who also directed X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass and Stardust) has created a film that looks good and has plenty of clever bits. Like the woman with the lethal Oscar Pistorius prosthetic feet, the exploding opening credits and the high-speed chase scene where the car being chased travels in reverse.

Kingsman: The Secret Service delivers the goods. I like it a lot.

 

 

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2 Guns

2 Guns is good, but could’ve been better. It’s an action/comedy. That combination requires a delicate hand to keep both elements in balance. Sadly, as its title suggests, 2 Guns leans more heavily to the action side.

Moviegoers will buy tickets to 2 Guns for its stars, Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. Their interaction onscreen is fun and highly entertaining, but the film does not have enough of them together.

The hook is that Bobby (Washington) and Stig (Wahlberg) are a DEA agent and a US Navy operative, respectively, but neither knows that the other is working for the government. After an unconsummated drug deal in Mexico and a lucrative bank robbery in Texas, they figure a few things out. But there are big twists and surprises to come.

The story gets complicated, but don’t be too concerned about the plot and things that don’t get explained. All scores get settled in the end.

Bobby and Stig pursue, and are pursued. Main players are drug lord Papi (Edward James Olmos), interested third party Earl (Bill Paxton) and Navy agent Quince (James Marsden). Fellow DEA agent Deb (Paula Patton) is Bobby’s sometime squeeze, but their relationship has had its ups and downs.

2 Guns is directed by Iceland native Baltasar Kormakur, who also directed Wahlberg in last year’s Contraband.

While Wahlberg and Washington don’t have Newman/Redford type chemistry, they are fun to watch together. When two of our most talented and likeable stars are in an action/comedy movie together, they should be in the movie—together. The sum of the parts is greater when Bobby and Stig are in the same frame.

2 Guns is far from a “must-see,” but if you like Washington and Wahlberg, you’ll have fun with this one. Rated R. Violence, language, slight boobage.

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