Crazy, Stupid, Love

Crazy, Stupid, Love is unique in the realm of romantic comedies in that it doesn’t open with a meet-cute, or ‘wacky hijinks’ – it opens, in fact, with a break-up, as 44-year old Cal (Steve Carell) splits with his wife of 27 years (Julianne Moore). There’s a particularly funny and heart-wrenching scene where she admits that she cheated on him and he – unable to stomach the idea – essentially dives out of a moving car just so he doesn’t have to listen to her anymore. It’s difficult and painful, yet also funny – a lot like life. And the entire film plays out along much the same lines. It’s a very honest, sweet, at-times sexy and thoroughly mature romantic comedy. It’s also one of the best films of the summer so far.

The idea of ‘growing up’ is a central theme in the film, so it makes sense that Steve Carell (who has played an over-grown man-child before in The 40-Year Old Virgin, and an emotionally-crippled, middle-aged man in Dan in Real Life) is the lead in what may be his most mature role to date. Thanks to the superb ensemble cast, though, he’s not asked to ‘drive’ the film so much as to simply steer it. His character may be the emotional heart of the story, but in many ways, Ryan Gosling’s womanizing cad, Jacob, may be the hero. Bottom line, this kid can act. He’s been nominated for the quirky, indie dramas Half-Nelson and Lars and the Real Girl, and probably should have been for the steamy Blue Valentine, but this film stretches him a little bit. He’s allowed to relax a bit, have some fun, and even crack a smile. Who knew that his comedic timing was so strong? His character, Jacob, takes Cal under his wing when he sees Cal struggling with his divorce in the bar while trolling for women. The resulting montage as Jacob attempts to remake Cal in his image is both hilarious and thoughtful and a real jumping off point for the story as a whole. Other strong notches in the cast include the always-dependable Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, who is quickly becoming one of my favourite young actresses (and not just because her flaming red hair makes her smoking hot), and former Academy Award winner, Marisa Tomei (who’s made something of a comeback of late as a second-banana in these films – it seems Hollywood is realizing she works best in small doses).

Also ‘growing up’ is the screenwriter himself, Dan Fogelman, whose best-known works to this point were animated features (including the original Cars, Bolt and last year’s Tangled). The writing is consistently strong throughout and the exchanges that the characters share are believable and funny without making you roll your eyes. There’s a scene halfway through the film where Cal stands outside, despondent, in a downpour and mutters half-heartedly, “Hmmph. Such a cliché.” Indeed, the Romantic Comedy has been around for a long time and its conventions are seemingly written in stone, yet this film manages to wisely tiptoe around them. The few instances where the film does give in, the characters themselves will take notice reminding us all with a nudge and a wink. The humour is smart and engaging without being crass (there’s one joke regarding teenage masturbation, but it’s handled in a cute and delicate manner) which makes it seem almost like a throwback in this, the age of the ‘gross-out’ comedy (that Carell himself helped start with The 40-Year Old Virgin some six years ago).

At its heart, the film is a simple, multi-generational love story, but unlike other films of its ilk (Playing By Heart, for instance, or even Love Actually – though the latter is still a very decent film), it doesn’t seem to suffer from having too many characters. The story weaves them in and out constantly and we never forget about anyone. Just when it seems like we’ve been spending too much time with Cal, we’ll cut to the sweet subplot with his smart-but-not-quite-too-smart-to-be-believable 13-year old son. Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (whose previous directing experience was the uneven 2009 Jim Carrey / Ewan McGregor vehicle, I Love You Phillip Morris) do a great job of deftly switching between the leads and keeping the story moving.

The end of the film isn’t perfect. Everything doesn’t magically return to its original state. This isn’t the Brady Bunch. These characters grow and change before our eyes, and as they grow up, they discover that love – like life – is awkward and messy and even painful at times, but it also can be beautiful. The same can be said of the film itself. Crazy, Stupid, Love is a romantic comedy for grown-ups. More than that, it’s a great film and one of the best films of the year so far.

Geek Score: 9 out of 10 bacon strips


What I’m Reading: Autumn: The City by David Moody

What I’m Playing: Infamous 2 for PS3

Captain America: The First Avenger

Prior to attending the special advance pre-screening (through Scene! It pays to be a member! (tm)) there was a real fear on my part that I would have to dismiss Captain America as American chest-thumping, jingoistic treacle - thankfully, some smart screenwriting decisions and strong performances from the leads makes it one of the better films of the summer and one of the best comic book adaptations of recent memory.

The story revolves around Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), an undersized, underweight asthmatic who wants, more than anything, to join the US Army and help out during World War 2. Of course, he flunks his physical. So he lies on his questionnaire and tries again. And again. And again. Finally, at his fifth such attempt, a scientist sees something in Steve that leads him to believe he'd be a perfect fit for his new super-soldier experiment. Of course, Steve accepts, the experiment is a success and he becomes Captain America - super soldier extraordinaire. They touch briefly on the character's comic origin (Captain America as a character was essentially created as pseudo-propaganda during war-time) by having him perform at USO troupes and functions across the states selling war-bonds. But while the character's name itself is 'Captain America', the screenwriters wisely fleshed out his platoon by featuring, in no particular order, a Canadian sharpshooter, two Frenchmen, an attractive, female British agent (guess what happens there?) and a gruff, surly, southern Colonel (played with delicious, scenery-chewing camp by Tommy Lee Jones). The main villain in the film is Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), a Nazi version of the super-soldier phenomenon that is bent on world domination (standard comic-book villain stuff - not necessarily befitting the 14th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All-Time according to IGN, but it's a minor gripe really)

If you have any knowledge of comic books, you probably know who Captain America is. He's probably Marvel's top draw that *hadn't* been made into a feature film to this point and he's front and center in a number of major events such as Civil War, Secret Invasion and Marvel Zombies. That said, the movie version strays a bit from canon (seems like every time I review a comic book movie lately I have to say that) but not in any way that will lead the nerds to raise their pitchforks and burn Hollywood to the ground. The changes they make are more for narrative purposes and the sake of continuity in the franchise as well as creating a sense of community among the Marvel universe, so in some ways it actually works out for the best (I know, I know, blasphemy, etc. - I'll turn in my Geek badge and credentials).

One thing that Marvel Studios seems to understand that DC's fledgling film studio has yet to truly grok is how to humanize their characters. Sure, they're superheroes, but they have heart and real motivations driving them. For instance, nobody outside of comic book fandom really knew or cared about Iron Man prior to the 2008 feature film, but Tony Stark had a soul and the audience really rooted for the character and a connection was formed. $300 million later a studio was funded and a franchise model was born. Thor's coffee scene is one such example - a scene that could have easily ended up on the cutting room floor, but because it didn't, it helped to try and 'humanize' a character who by his very nature is completely inhuman. Likewise, Captain America features a couple of scenes that another director might have thrown away, but Joe Johnston (who also directed the underrated Hidalgo with Viggo Mortensen - check it out) found a way to fit in and the film is better for it. Johnston has a certain amount of fun with the source material, but still manages to take it seriously.

Somewhere along the line, Marvel Studios decided to hire people who can *act* - a novel concept in comic-book action films. Chris Evans was the best part of two very bad comic book films in Fox's disastrous Fantastic Four series as the Human Torch, but he really gets a chance to shine here with the film on his (extremely broad) shoulders. He's a likable lead that audiences can root for. The aforementioned Tommy Lee Jones looks like he's having the most fun he's had since Men in Black II came out almost a decade ago. Finally, Hugo Weaving's Red Skull is suitably menacing (his German accent is harsh and abrupt - almost like he copied his speech mannerisms from watching Hitler's speeches) providing a worthwhile foil for the heroes.

The special effects suffer at times from issues with overt CGI and the post-production 3D is a blatant cashgrab completely unnecessary but nothing is so jarring as to prevent your suspension of disbelief. The film's pacing moves along well and the two-hour runtime feels brisk (unlike Green Lantern's 1 hr 45 minutes that feels almost twice that) and when it's all over you'll be left wanting to see more. And thankfully, the wait won't be too long - next up on the docket for Marvel is the ambitious Avengers (featuring Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, et al.) next year. While they don't quite have a Pixar-esque winning streak just yet, they're punching above their weight, so I'm definitely looking forward to that one. Along with The Dark Knight Rises (have you seen the teaser? OMGasm), 2012 could be a great year for comic book movies.

Captain America combines an above-average script with great lead performances and sprinkles in good directing with brisk pacing. It's a film that pays homage to the source material, yet isn't afraid to write its own chapter in canon. It's a very worthwhile summer action film and one of the better comic book movies released of late.

Geek Score: 8 out of 10 bacon strips


What I'm Reading: Sweet Tooth vol. 3

What I'm Playing: Infamous 2 on PS3

Green Lantern

Let me get this out of the way right now – Green Lantern is not a bad film. In fact, I actually enjoyed it a little bit. Technically-speaking, however, it’s not really a *good* film, either – there are issues with the pacing and plotting and those creepy coloured-lenses that Ryan Reynolds wears when he’s getting his Green on are truly disturbing. But as a comic book origin story, it succeeds, at least partly, thanks to its lead actor and some dazzling special effects.

In Green Lantern, Ryan Reynolds plays Hal Jordan, the ‘first’ human Green Lantern (There’s since been three more, but that may be too much nerd for you to handle right now, so I won’t go into it), test pilot, daredevil and all-around cocky sonuvabitch who is gifted a power ring that enables him to join an interstellar police force known as the Green Lanterns. If this sounds slightly convoluted, that’s because it is – but in all seriousness, the film stays remarkably true to the comic, at least in terms of the origin story. Reynolds plays Jordan with just the right amount of smarm and cocksure bombast mixed with just a tinge of regret, enabling everyone who was terrified he might be ill-suited for the role, or overplay it to the point of caricature to breathe just a bit easier.

The power ring that he wears enables him to do literally ‘anything’ he can think up (which has always been a point of contention among comic literati – it smacks of deus ex machina, honestly, but we’re not here to critique the comic, we’re critiquing the film, so I digress..) which ensures a few money special FX shots. One shot wherein he throws a tanker truck at a foe and then creates an antiaircraft gun out of energy and blasts said tanker truck – turning it, essentially, into a very large grenade – stands out as my favourite, but there are several worth noting. At least you can see where they spent the reported $200 million.

The plot, such as it is, is more than a little meandering – you start with Hal showing off during a flight exercise, then insert the requisite fight with the potential significant other (Blake Lively, in a role she will likely do her best to downplay if she ever gets to accept alifetime achievement award), then Hal finds the ring and things pick up a little bit. Once he becomes a full-fledged Green Lantern (complete with ‘hilarious’ training montage!) the story focuses a little bit but it seems unsure as to what to do with the secondary characters. Familiar (to fans of the comic, at any rate) faces like Kilowog and Sinestro are given cameo roles at best. Especially disappointing is how they fail to really recognize the Hal Jordan / Sinestro dynamic (one of the best in the books). What should be a dynamic and somewhat ... er.. ‘complicated’ relationship is boiled down to about three minutes of on-screen interaction. Part of this is done for the sake of pacing, I’m sure (as it is, the film clocks in at only two hours, yet seems rather plodding but when your main villain is as nondescript and relatively blasé as Parallax, there’s only so much you can do), but a little background information on the other Lanterns would've helped flesh things out immensely.

Still, as an origin story (and let’s be honest here – that’s what this film is, the first in what WB is hoping against hope to become another sturdy franchise) it defines the character and provides enough ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ to make it a passable use of 2 hours. The issues that the film does have are not irreparable, which gives me hope if the sequel is greenlit. There's a lot more to this character than they show in this film and I'd like to see them get the chance to show it.

If you’re a fan of the comics, you will see more than enough nods and winks (stay past the first part of the credits, specifically) to keep you on your toes and you will likely leave (relatively) satisfied. If you haven’t read a Green Lantern comic, though, buyer beware.

Geek Score: 6 out of 10 Bacon Strips


What I'm Playing: Infamous for PS3

What I'm Reading: Batman: Arkham City