REVIEW: THE HANGOVER

Grand Readership,

Beginning with TODD PHILLIPS' OLD SCHOOL (2003) - a film that not only set the bar for adult comedy, but also rocket launched the comedy careers of several young stars. Strangely, I first saw OLD SCHOOL at a sneak preview, saw the picture alongside a riotous university crowd, and then stormed outside cheering and looking to party. And while I no longer follow such a pattern after seeing an excellent comedy, THE HANGOVER is an exceptional reminder of who's in charge of the genre.



PHILLIPS' success in OLD SCHOOL (and ROAD TRIP, for that matter) paved the way for such pictures as the well-received STARSKY AND HUTCH and the forgettable SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS. With THE HANGOVER, PHILLIPS combines what works best: a talented young cast and talented filmmaking. And having just seen the picture as a sneak peek here in NYC, I will attest that a thirsty crowd was drenched in satisfaction.

THE HANGOVER finds four men on a bachelor party in VEGAS, hell-bent on a having one last bender together. BRADLEY COOPER leads as PHIL, the best friend to JUSTIN BARTHA'S DOUG. The other best friend, STU, is played by ED HELMS - who many will recognize as ANDY BERNARD from NBC'S THE OFFICE. Finally, ZACH GALIFIANAKIS (say that three times fast and WARNER BROS will give you the keys to their next failed blockbuster) is the estranged but hilarious brother-in-law to groom, ALAN. Maybe on paper this seems like a lot, but PHILLIPS guides us swiftly and easily through each of their relationships, adding a necessary fabric and dimension to the picture.



Perhaps OLD SCHOOL succeeded by the same function: among the three male leads in MITCH, FRANK and BERNARD (LUKE WILSON, WILL FERRELL and VINCE VAUGHN respectively) was a weave of seamless relationships. Each character related to the next in a unique way, on top of providing a unique relationship when the three were together. Let’s face it, pictures with this level of detail and class are rarely found in the adult comedy genre.

THE HANGOVER is set up as a chase film. The bachelor crew wakes up to a missing groom and no memory of the last twelve hours. They now have roughly one day to solve the mystery, retrieve the groom and deliver him to his wedding. And because it's structured in that way, it'd be difficult to discuss any of the plot points without taking away from the picture's enjoyment. Suffice to say, the story that unfolds is remarkable, but it will be how thoughtful and effortless the story is told that will keep the curious coming and sending them off with smiles.



At this point, it's only fair to go on record saying this comedy is adult in nature, and frankly, may be second only to BORAT (although if you stay for THE HANGOVER’s credits, that’s questionable) in terms of graphic nudity, language and adult content. If you can let it go, you are in for heck of a treat. Funny, having recently taken a friend of mine on a four man bachelor party in VEGAS (surprisingly, this is true) – and NOT having gone upside-down nuts, THE HANGOVER indeed captures something I’ve only known in VEGAS. What that is, I haven’t the foggiest. Here’s to hoping the picture tops $100M (which I think it will) and studios are taking notes on what audiences are really enjoying.

FRIDAY - MAY 29

Grand Readership,

I have been looking forward to the weekend of MAY 29 for well over a year, and DISNEY PIXAR'S UP has teased me as far back as WALL-E. And that it's released in the same weekend as SAM RAIMI'S return to horror in DRAG ME TO HELL makes it seem too good to be true. I imagine UP to become the second highest grossing film of the summer and year, behind only MICHAEL BAY'S TRANSFORMERS. JAMES CAMERON'S highly anticipated AVATAR will challenge both come December, but will only have one week of release in 2009. If you're headed to the theater, be sure to see UP.

Enjoy!

UP (DIR. PETE DOCTER/BOB PETERSON (III))

Although it's impossible to have a house as richly talented as PIXAR, one would imagine the dream team tandem of PETE DOCTER/BOB PETERSON (III)) to be one of the best. I won't bother listing their successes, but rather will share a short anecdote: UP is widely rumored to be the last of the "original" ideas put on the table at PIXAR'S founding creative meeting. As if the picture didn't need any additional hype, what, between it's universal praise and breathtaking appeal, we're left with a sinking wonder if this will the last of the great DISNEY/PIXAR creations.


DRAG ME TO HELL (SAM RAIMI)

As most of the geek community is well aware that DIRECTOR SAM RAIMI (SPIDER-MAN TRILOGY) got his start in grassroots horror with the success of his BRUCE CAMPELL films, they will be able to smile as millions flock to theaters to see a genre rebooted from the master himself. OK, DRAG ME TO HELL isn't that special. But for the horror fans and geeks who don't want to see STAR TREK for the eighth time or see PIXAR make another smash by the same count, this is a solid choice.

PREVIEW WEEKLY - FRIDAY MAY 22

Grand Readership,

Surprisingly, I have avoided the BOX OFFICE report - but even if I didn't, my prediction that TERMINATOR SALVATION will disappoint wouldn't change. The first week won't be the worst, either. SALVATION will flop hard and send several WARNER BROS. productions to a screeching halt as they digest how they could produce TDK (THE DARK KNIGHT) one summer and then fluke hard and fast the next. NIGHT AT THE MUESAM should do fine - but really has no chance against DISNEY'S UP, being released next week. If I were you, avoid the theaters this weekend and wait for the good stuff.

Enjoy!

TERMINATOR SALVATION (DIR. McG)

TERMINATOR SALVATION is the latest footnote in WARNER BROS. well-publicized (a la T3) neglect for a once-great franchise; with the latest iteration being helmed by McG (CHARLIE'S ANGELS) and hailed as disaster. I suppose if you're a die hard TERMINATOR fan you may have interest, but even those would be mention this later picture same breath as T2: JUDGEMENT DAY. Let's face it, WARNER BROS. messed up - but they have time to recover. Let's just hope they listen. Avoid.


NIGHT AT THE MUSEAM: BATTLE FOR THE SMITHSONIAN (DIR. SHAWN LEVY)

The DIRECTOR, WRITERS and STARS from the original are back - a fact that would suggest 20TH CENTURY FOX is taking after their biggest competitor DISNEY in keeping together creative teams that work. Also adopted from DISNEY? The colon riddled title. BEN STILLER is tiresome, the gag is old - but frankly, its better than most of what's released. If you find yourself at the theater this weekend - its the best new pick.

THE BOOK REVIEW: THE CORRECTIONS

Everyone has that one book that they love; that one book that they feel is a high point of literature and they want to rush to the nearest mountaintop and tell the world to read this book immediately. For your humble book reviewer here, my mountaintop is this column, and that book is The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. No book I have read published in the last 10 years captures Americana quite like this one. It is a tale of morality, greed, social criticism, lust and the deterioration of old-fashioned American values and the creation of a new set of American rules as we enter the new millennium; all told through the backdrop of a dysfunctional American family.



Franzen had published two novels previously to limited critical acclaim and even more limited sales. When sample chapters of The Corrections were sent to publishers and critics, they were floored by what they were reading. Franzen was being hailed as the one new author who could bring literary fiction back to the bestseller list, something not really seen since John Updike. Oprah Winfrey had decided to name The Corrections as her book of the month selection and as any writer knows, when this happens, that means one thing: MONEY AND VAST READERSHIP! However Franzen did not really see it this way. The Oregonian newspaper published an article citing Franzen’s uneasiness with the selection of his book. He said that he didn’t want his book slapped with the Oprah logo on it as he saw it as representative of “corporate ownership”. He also lamented the fact that the selection by Oprah would result in diminished male readership. Soon after the article came out, his invitation to the Oprah Winfrey show was rescinded. While his words caused Oprah some embarrassment, she kept the book on her list. Financially, the book did not suffer however, becoming a monster bestseller and one of the best reviewed books of 2001, winning the National Book Award and becoming a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

I’m stressing the fact that this novel is literary fiction, because I feel it can stand right up there with other great works of fiction. What separates this is the fact that it is contemporary. Characters chat via emails, they perform internet searches, they search for new methods of medicine; this novel takes place in today’s America. For all the greatness of a book like The Great Gatsby, it is trapped in a time capsule of the roaring twenties.



Witness the Lambert family! Born in the Midwest in a town called St. Jude in an unnamed state, Alfred and Enid Lambert have been married for years and have borne two sons and a daughter. They raised their children with typical Midwestern values and sent them off to the world while staying behind. As Alfred slowly descends into Alzheimer’s, Enid is left to run the house, the finances and care for a man who she starts to question whether their love for each other was ever truly real. Gary, the eldest, runs off to Philadelphia and marries Caroline, a woman who is a complete antithesis of the world he grew up in. They have three sons who are being raised in a completely alien environment.

Caroline is the epitome of a new age, modern, liberated woman. She throws maternal instincts to the wind in favor of books to raise her children. She supports her one son’s hobby of installing surveillance cameras throughout their house simply because she read once that encouragement is the key to raising a healthy son. She withholds sex from Gary to get her way. She hates Gary’s parents and refuses to accompany Gary to visits to St. Jude and refuses to let their children be exposed to the Lamberts without her supervision. Denise, the sole Lambert daughter, follows Gary to Philadelphia, but rarely socializes with him in favor of her career as a top chef in one of the fanciest restaurants in the city. She is hopelessly single, a fact that her mother not only disapproves of but simply doesn’t compute in her mind that a beautiful woman would not want to make marriage a priority. Denise is a woman who oozes sexuality and uses it to both her benefit and to her eventual downfall. Chip, the youngest child, is a neurotic man who was once a college professor in Connecticut, but after unfortunate events, moves to New York and eventually Europe to participate in a money scam fully backed by the Lithuanian government.



Enid, whose doubts are becoming large by the day, tries to organize one final Christmas celebration in St. Jude with the entire family. What follows is a complete emotional breakdown for all parties involved. Grievances are brought to the forefront. Gary both hates and loves his father and has nothing but contempt for his mother, someone he views as a doormat for her father’s emotional abuse. However Gary’s confusion delves from the fact that he comes to realize soon that perhaps his family is not the perfect unit he believes them to be. Denise battles with her mother regarding her liberated view of women in society. Chip is the one child who accepts his parents’ values, but simply might be too weak to even question them. Enid light be the true protagonist of this novel, but I leave that for you to decide.

Yes, this is a dysfunctional family, but not in the cliché sense of divorce and un-wed mothers. Their dysfunction rises from a deep emotional level and all characters are either too weak or too strong to come to terms with their feelings in regard to each other and their rapidly deteriorating father. Flashbacks are used to illustrate what growing up in the Lambert household was like and serves as a reflection to the current state of affairs. What I truly love about this book is the amount of themes it covers, yet never overwhelms. Two people can read this book and draw two wildly separate conclusions as to what the book says about society. If there is only one book that any of you readers would pick up from my column, make it this one!

PREVIEW WEEKLY - FRIDAY MAY 15

Grand Readership,

Back to being on schedule! This week holds the high profile follow up to THE DA VINCI CODE, ANGELS AND DEMONS and two other smaller pictures in THE BROTHERS BLOOM and MANAGEMENT. ANGELS AND DEMONS will be hard pressed to oust STAR TREK, but then again, THE DA VINCI CODE saw wild success. Who can blame the audiences, frankly. If the only TOM HANKS I'm going to get anymore is packaged by RON HOWARD and inspired by DAN BROWN... well, I have no choice but to take it! BROTHERS BLOOM has some quiet hoopla around it - and feels like it could be a sleeper hit of sorts. MANAGEMENT won't do much, but will be a nice alternative to for the non-blockbuster crowd... Enjoy!


ANGELS AND DEMONS (DIR. RON HOWARD)

There isn't much to say about ANGELS AND DEMONS - at least in the sense that many have already made their mind up about this picture. Either you're a TOM HANKS fan or a DAN BROWN fan (or less likely a RON HOWARD fan) or for some reason just refuse to buy into the STAR TREK buzz. ANGELS AND DEMONS is a direct follow up to THE DA VINCI CODE; ROBERT LANGDON (TOM HANKS) is back - this time alongside EWAN MCGREGOR and the two are charged with tracking down a mysterious but imminent threat in the ILLUMINATI. The trailer is more a less a step by step of the plot and the cliff hanger device couldn't be more transparent. Still, DAVID KOEPP wrote the screenplay - and he's helmed so many monster hits he's in a league of his own. Like I said, you know whether or not you're going to see it... but as for me, I couldn't be less interested.


THE BROTHERS BLOOM (DIR. RIAN JOHNSON)

THE BROTHERS BLOOM sort of snuck up on me. There has been some buzz, mostly good, and it's packaged with some talented young stars in RACHEL WEISZ, ADRIEN BRODY and MARK RUFFALO. I haven't seen ROBBIE COLTRANE in a while and am eager to see what he brings to the table (seldom be the instance where he's let me down). The writer/director RIAN JOHNSON previously gave us BRICK - a well-received but puzzling picture deemed a detective noir but set among teenagers. THE BROTHERS BLOOM opens in limited cities this week and gets a wider release on MAY 22. Definitely for the quirkier crowd - we'll have to wait and see if it's a picture everyone should check out.


MANAGEMENT (DIR. STEPHEN BELBER)

MANAGEMENT is writer/director STEPHEN BELBER's first role in such a title - and I have to say it looks promising. Starring STEVE ZAHN, JENNIFER ANISTON and WOODY HARRELSON, there's enough appeal in those three to get me off my couch. Let's hope ZAHN fares better in this than his earlier entry this year, SUNSHINE CLEANING, but his failure in that was more a lack of screen time than anything else. ANISTON hasn't overdone it lately, which is perhaps a sign of maturity on her part or perhaps a lack of interest on the studios part. Whichever it is, the script seems clever enough to justify choosing... and any opportunity a women gets to make out with WOODY HARRELSON is always, at least, an interesting choice. Sadly, not much of a chance at the box office- but that it's getting a release says a lot about it. I'd check it out if you're a fan of any of the above, otherwise, waiting for the in-home release would be far from criminal.