That’s My Boy

Posted on June 14, 2012 at 6:00 pm

Oscar Wilde’s famous story The Picture of Dorian Gray is about a dissolute young man who retains his youthful beauty as his portrait, hidden in the attic, shows his face becoming more aged and corrupt. I can’t help thinking that somewhere there is a young Adam Sandler while we watch his screen persona grow more and more repulsively scrofulous. As revolting as this movie is — and it is truly and deeply loathsome — that isn’t the worst part. More offensive than the disgusting attempts at humor that debase every life form is the utter contempt for the audience that shows in every lazy and incompetent frame and line of dialogue, with Sandler’s lines all said in that horrible comic voice he uses to show he is playing a stupid person. And more depressing than all of that is the horrific sight of Sandler’s insistence on creating the most unpleasant character imaginable and then having all of the other characters find him irresistible.

I have no problem with humor that is politically incorrect or even offensive (see my review of “The Dictator”) if there is some intelligence behind it and some point to be made. But this movie’s “comedy” has less wit than a two-year old making diaper jokes. He is not pushing boundaries and challenging assumptions. He is making fun of fat naked people. It is vile.

Sandler plays Donny, a man who was seduced by his middle school teacher (Eva Amurri Martino) when he was 12. She became pregnant, and since she was serving a 30-year sentence, he got custody of their son before he was in high school. And so he named the baby “Han Solo” and gave him candy for breakfast. Most of the movie takes place when the boy, now using the name “Todd Peterson” (Andy Samberg) is about to get married to Jamie (Leighton Meester, looking like Winnie from “The Wonder Years”). He has told everyone his parents were killed in an explosion and has done his best to be the responsible grown-up his father never was. He is a successful hedge fund manager staying at the home of the wealthy boss (Tony Orlando!) he hopes will make him a partner. The boss has an elderly mother, of course. Another one of Sandler’s obsessions is sex with old ladies.

Donny, who has blown through all of the money he made selling his story for a made-for-TV movie (starring Ian Ziering), will have to go to prison if he can’t get $43,000 for the IRS. His only hope is to get Han/Todd to go visit his mother in prison so he can sell the reunion footage to a reality television show. Donnie tracks down his son at the boss’ home the weekend of the wedding and causes many scenes of excruciating and un-funny mayhem. The jokes about Donny and Vanilla Ice(!) having sex with an octogenarian and bother-sister incest(!) are idiotic enough, but Sandler’s need to portray his pustulant character as charming, lovable, and sexy is downright creepy. At times, I amused myself by pretending it was a horror film. That was as close to being amused as I got.

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Comedy

Thanks to Betty Jo Tucker for Having Me on Her Show

Posted on June 14, 2012 at 3:55 pm

Betty Jo Tucker invited me to talk about the movies of 2012 with Mad Movie Man (and sometime actor) A.J. Hakari on her blogtalk radio show, Movie Addict HQ. It was a pleasure, as always.

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Media Appearances

Opening This Week: It’s Back to the 80’s with “Rock of Ages” and “That’s My Boy”

Posted on June 14, 2012 at 11:57 am

Until VH1 recycles it’s “I Love the 80’s” series again, those homesick for the era have two choices opening in movie theaters this week that are both affectionate tributes to the era. It makes sense — studio executives in their 40’s and 50’s came of age to the music of Bon Jovi, Guns n Roses, Def Leppard, Joan Jett, Jefferson Starship, Journey, and Foreigner, so the prospect of a juke-box musical like “Rock of Ages” is irresistible. And Adam Sandler, whose movies are always in some way about the 80’s, populates his new film, “That’s My Boy,” with 80’s figures like Vanilla Ice, Tony Orlando, and Todd Bridges. His character’s most meaningful gift to his son is a feather earring from a Loverboy concert. Reviews of both will be posted in a few hours.

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Opening This Week

An Alphabet of Movie Comedy — How Many Do You Know?

Posted on June 14, 2012 at 8:00 am

Designer Stephen Wildish has already designed magnificent movie posters with alphabets of war movies, horror, sci-fi, superheroes and 80’s and 90’s films. Here is his alphabet of movie comedies. How many can you identify?

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Not specified

Can You Write a 140-Character Movie Review?

Posted on June 13, 2012 at 3:58 pm

The website Movie Tweeviews is conducting a competition for tweet-able movie reviews of classic films for inclusion in a possible book. Ira Deutchman will post the title of one classic film each day and invite all who want to enter to submit via twitter a review in 140 characters or less. Here is what Deutschman says about the rules:

Contributors are invited based on their standing in the industry, or based on the quality of their tweets. They can be critics, curators, distributors, filmmakers or articulate fans.

The ground rules are simple…

Reviews should be honest.

They should not be self-promotion.

Distributors should not include anything about films they are distributing.

Producers, writers and directors should only review films that they have nothing to do with.

Do not use the #MTRV tag on anything that isn’t a review.

If you re-tweet other #MTRV tweets, remove the hashtag so that those reviews do not end up in the feed twice.

Do not include links to longer reviews.

Don’t use the word “awesome” more than once per year.

Try to be clever.

I reserve the right to remove people from the feed if they break the ground rules, but professional critics can do as they please.

If you would like become a contributor, just start tweeting with the hastag #MTRV for anything you would consider a review. Just be mindful of the rules above. If your tweets seem like they would fit in, I’ll add you to the official feed, and your tweets will magically appear (even the one’s you’ve already tweeted).

I’m anxious to see whether this turns into something useful.

He will pick one winner each day. Here are some of the entries so far:

DAY 7 (June 10) #WestSideStory

@carynjames: #WestSideStory Prettiest gang fight ever. Romeo/Juliet update. Nat. Wood lipsynchs;glorious Bernstein music makes up 4 Hollywd glitz #mtrvc
@nyindieguy: #WestSideStory: Gloriously cinematic choreography, brilliant score & can’t miss R&J adaptation…1 of the great musicals of all time. #mtrvc
@SatriVision: #WestSideStory Bernstein/Sondheim/Robbins/Wise do beautiful NY Shakespeare. Marni Nixon makes Natalie Wood feel pretty, witty & gay. #mtrvc

DAY 6 (June 9): #Alien

@nyindieguy: #Alien: Successful cross between sci-fi & horror marked the first credible female action hero along w/ pulse quickening scares. #mtrvc
@SatriVision: #Alien – Claustrophobic, feminist sci-fi nightmare. If a phallic monster pops out of a guy’s chest, get your cat off that spaceship! #mtrvc
@TheCinemaGirl: #Alien redefines space as intimate sphere where wisdom is as vital as bravery in creating a hero. No wonder a woman like Ripley rules. #mtrvc

DAY 5 (June 8): #ItHappenedOneNight

@tobinaddington: Between trumpets, curtains, and a bit of leg on the highway, the sexes battle it old school. Snappy Capra. #ItHappenedOneNight #mtrvc
@TheCinemaGirl: Template for sophisticated romantic comedies, #ItHappenedOneNight makes journalist & heiress smart, funny & sweet – no small feat. #mtrvc
@nyindieguy: #ItHappenedOneNight: Capra hits all the right notes in classic screwball comedy…slyly suggestive for its time, and still hilarious. #mtrvc

DAY 4 (June 7): #MyOwnPrivateIdaho

@carynjames: #MyOwnPrivateIdaho Gritty dreamlike VanSant breakthru, druggy River Phoenix char., feels creepier over the yrs.Not so private anymore #mtrvc
@TheCinemaGirl: Shakespeare’s brash Hal is a gay hustler, but My Own Private Idaho belongs to tender narcoleptic River Phoenix & vast Western skies. #mtrvc

DAY 3 (June 6): #HoopDreams

@TariqRButt: The stakes are high, the drama intense in this pioneering indie doc. #HoopDreams plays with all the intensity of a championship game. #mtrvc
WINNER OF THE DAY
@DavidJaeilKim (Facebook): Portrait of moms, dads, sons; our hood, frnds & dreams defrrd. Not just bout ball: #HoopDreams is n American prophecy that gets finer w/age #mtrvc

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