The King of Pain Marathon: 6 hours of Sweet Beautiful RVs

Over the past week my pal, and multiple Lammy award winning blogger, The Mad Hatter has been conducting a The King of Pain blog-a-thon on his site The Dark of the Matinee. The blog-a-thon consist of Hatter diving into his wife’s side of the DVD shelf and subjecting himself to the films in her collection which he deemed painful. Needless to say the merging of their DVD collections will not be occurring anytime soon.

Being the masochist that Hatter is, he has invited his fellow movie bloggers to participate in the The King of Pain blog-a-thon by either delving into their significant others collection or watching some of the same films he had to watch. After asking my wife to pick out three films for me to watch, I was pleasantly surprised to see that her DVD collection actually held several gems. Despite the numerous copies of Dirty Dancing, films such as The Princess Bride, Big Trouble in Little China, Working Girl, Romancing the Stone, and True Lies all graced her collection. Things were looking outstanding until we hit the “donated by others” section of her collection. These are the films that were passed onto her by friends who were not big movie watchers. This is where the “pain” in The King of Pain began…

The Sweetest Thing

The first film on deck was the comedy The Sweetest Thing, a film that I had seen before, which only made it more painful sitting through it a second time around. The film is essentially a poor attempt at a female Farrelly Brothers film. The story focuses on three roommates, Christina (Cameron Diaz), Courtney (Christina Applegate) and Jane (Selma Blair), as they navigate through the complicated waters of the dating scene. Christina in particular has left a trail of broken hearts as she just wants to have fun. Of course this all changes when she meets Peter (Thomas Jane), a man who immediately sees through her façade and calls her out on her fear of commitment.
Comedic hijinks ensue as Christina decides to track Peter down by crashing his brother’s wedding.

Sex and the City, the television show not the movie, proved that women talking frankly about sex can be amusing. Unfortunately, The Sweetest Thing is so concerned with being a gross out style comedy that it forgets to make the three main women actual people. For women who seemingly have everything together except for their love life, the women come off as dimwits instead of sophisticated professional women. The film is filled with jokes about oral sex, jokes about women openly feeling each other’s breast, more oral sex jokes, a clothes changing montage, oh and more oral sex jokes. None of which are funny. The only highlights of the film are Christina Applegate and Jason Bateman, both try their best to overcome the bad script and provide genuinely funny moments but even they can only do so much.

RV

Remember when Barry Sonnenfeld use to make movies that were actually good? Films such as Get Shorty and the first two Addams Family films, yep I miss those days too. RV plays like a 60’s Disney family comedy made 40 years too late. Frustrated that his family no longer interacts the way they use to, Bob (Robin Williams) decides to rent an oversize RV and take his wife (Cheryl Hines), moody daughter Cassie (Joanna Levesque) and weight lifting obsessed son Carl (Josh Hutcherson) on the great American road trip. Besides trying to get his family to bond, Bob also must find time to get important work done for his demanding boss (Will Arnett).

I honestly do not know where to start with this film? RV was, if nothing else, a test of endurance. Despite its scant 99 minute running time, the film felt like it was well over two hours. The film relies heavily on physical comedy and juvenile potty humor. While watching excrement shoot up in the air and cover Robin Williams, may ignite laughter from a five year-old, it does nothing for the rest of us. Which brings me to the main problem with RV, you can predict every single gag well before it happens. The film never deviates from the standard plot formula that has been used in numerous other films of this kind. Robin Williams, Jeff Daniels, and Kristin Chenoweth all deserved to be in better films than this. I understand a paycheck is a paycheck, but they are all too talented slum it in this production.

Beautiful

By far the most painful and infuriating pick of the bunch, actress Sally Field makes her feature film directorial debut with this insipid film about appreciating what is really important in life. Since she was a little girl Mona (Minnie Driver) has been obsessed with beauty pageants. With the help of her seamstress best friend Ruby (Joey Lauren Adams), Mona starts to make strides in the competitions she enters. Just as her pageant career takes off Mona discovers that she is pregnant. To ensure that Mona’s dreams of becoming Miss America stay on track, Ruby secretly agrees to raise Mona’s daughter Vanessa (Hallie Kate Eisenberg) as her own. Yet when circumstance forces Mona to take care of Vanessa, Mona must not only find a way to keep her hidden from pageant officials, but she also has to figure out how to deal with Vanessa’s constant inquires about why she looks she looks so much like Mona and not Ruby.

What is so insulting about Beautiful is the fact that Mona is a shallow and selfish character for 95% of the film but then is inexplicably praised like a hero by the end. People mistake her act of finally coming to terms with the responsibilities she has been ignoring for seven or so years, as a statement about a woman’s right to be both a mother and a beauty queen. Despite the fact that the story has a “villain”, I would argue that Mona is the true villain of the film. She is neither a likable nor interesting character, and it is hard to feel happy when everything wraps up so conveniently at the end. Frankly, as a male, I found the film insulting so I can only imagine what some women thought of the film. I cannot even look at the DVD cover without getting enraged at the massive pain this film was to sit through.

Movie Marketing Monday

Good Neighbours

Nothing like a Canadian thriller to get the heart pumping.



Horrible Bosses

A dark comedy about killing your boss can be a tricky thing to pull off. This film does look promising though.

Movie Marketing Monday

Point Blank

I enjoy films where average people are pushed to the brink. This thriller looks like it will deliver both suspense and action. Needless to say I am eagerly anticipating this film!




The Change-Up

Jason Bateman could use a comedic hit, Ryan Reynolds has been comedic gold at the box office. Is it a match made in heaven? Or are audiences getting tired of seeing grown men acting immature?

Movie Marketing Monday

Movie Marketing Monday looks at the movie trailers and/or posters that caught my eye recently.

The Switch

This film had me at Jason Bateman, though the rest of the cast is great as well. This is the first time since Friends With Money that I actually want to see a Jennifer Aniston film in theatres.

The Joneses

I saw The Joneses at TIFF last year. I will post my thoughts on it closer to the release date.




All trailers courtesy of traileraddict.com

Job Security Not the Only Thing Up in the Air These Days

Up in the Air


A film that ask us to care not only about those who are being laid off but also the people doing the firing as well? Clearly this is a joke right? These were some of thoughts going through my head during the first twenty minutes of Jason Reitman's latest work, Up in the Air. I will fully admit that my early bias towards this film was due to the fact that it seemed to be making light of a subject matter that hit home personally for me. A mere two weeks prior to seeing Up in the Air, the company I work for had the tough task of cutting a lot of jobs. Not the best way to usher in the Christmas season to say the least. Though I was fortunate enough to survive the round of layoffs many people, including some good friends, were let go. It was a decision that greatly impacted those who were laid off, those who remained, and those that had the extremely tough task of deciding to let go people go. So what does this have to do with Up in the Air? Everything and nothing depending on your own perspective.

George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizer who spends most of his days firing people on behalf of companies too frightened to do it themselves. Ryan's work as a downsizer has him constantly travelling and living out of a suitcase for the majority of the year. While others may find this unbearable, Ryan relishes in it as he views it as the ultimate form of freedom. Yet the emergence of a young hotshot, Natalie (Anna Kendrick), threatens to permanently ground Ryan's highflying lifestyle. Natalie has created a business model that would allow the firm he works for to fire people via video conferencing. After witnessing people's reactions to being laid off first hand, Ryan believes that a face-to-face human element is needed to facilitate things smoothly. Especially if it is in the form of fake compassion, which Ryan has practically made an art-form. Ryan's boss (Jason Bateman) believes that Natalie's idea will save the company millions in travel expenses but decides to have Ryan take her out into the field as an experiment. This does not sit well with Ryan whose freewheeling traveling ways has now become rather cramped. To further complicate things, Ryan meets a fellow frequent flyer, Alex (Vera Farmiga), who might cause him to redefine all the things he considers important in life.

If Up in the Air had come out in another year, where it did not hit so close to home, there is a good chance I may not have loved it as much as I do. This is not to say that it is not a good film in its own right. It is just that, if I was not getting married in a few months myself, I would have probably found the wedding subplot unnecessary. The film really tries to cover a lot of different topics, maybe too many, in a rather short amount of time. Still, I must give credit to director Jason Reitman for keeping all the threads tightly woven. It is tough to make light of job loss in a way that will get the audience both laughing and reflecting. Yet this is exactly what the film achieves.

Ryan is a compelling character because his cutting cynical views on our unrealistic need for things (i.e. home, job, marriage, etc.) at times rings very true. Ryan views not being tied down to people and places as the ultimate freedom. Yet the freedom that Ryan enjoys so much is far more constricting than he knows. Ryan actually embodies everything that he normally preaches against in his "backpack" seminars. Instead of aspiring to have a family or owning material possessions such as a house, Ryan craves becoming one of only seven people in the world to achieve the highest frequent flyer miles status. He may not be able to tell you about what is going on in his siblings lives but he can rattle off all the best eateries and car rental places in every city. He keeps hotel room keys like a badge of honour.

The thing I liked about the way Reitman displays Ryan's many contradictions is how subtle it is at first. It only gradually show itself through several small, but key, moments with both Alex and Natalie. Speaking of Alex and Natalie, it must be noted that Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick give exceptional performances in this film. I would even go as far as saying that they literally steal the movie right out of Clooney's hands. Yes Clooney's work in Up in the Air is on par with his best performances in films such as Michael Clayton and Three Kings. Yet it is Farmiga and Kendrick that really make this picture shine.

On the surface Vera Farmiga's Alex is merely the female that might actually be able crack Ryan's cold exterior. As the film progresses we see that Vera's role is far more interesting, and complicated, than just the typical love interest. Farmiga gives the film such weight without ever having to overplay the role. There are so many subtle nuances in her performance that is really fascinating to watch. The same argument can be made for Kendrick who, despite having the flashier role, keeps her character grounded as she runs the gambit of emotions. Kendrick is required to be the shark, the comic relief, the conscience, and the hope in the picture. Natalie has the book smarts but her ambition blinds her to the fact that she is not the female Ryan. She is the person in your office who knows nothing about your day to day work, yet has all these great ideas to make your work easier. You hate her at first but eventually get to understand her and, dare I say, care about her on a certain level.

As I mentioned above, Up in the Air really connected with me as everything mentioned in this film hit extremely close to home on a personal level. It is a film that not only asks us to question what we want out life? But, more importantly, who do we want in the seat beside us while we are on this ongoing trip that life provides us. I did find that the film really struggled at times to reach the hopefully ending. If it was up to me, I would have ended the picture with the night shot of Ryan sitting on his bed looking aimlessly out of the hotel window after a key scene, which I will not spoil here, is revealed. Also in any other year I probably would have cut some of the stuff with the wedding as well. Who knows? Maybe I will reflect on this film again in a few years and see if I am still fond of the film. Yet as it stands today, Up in the Air connected with me in a way few other films have this year. Definitely one of the better films of this year.