The Joneses

Posted on August 10, 2010 at 8:10 am

Why do we want what we want? I don’t mean world peace or for our school’s team to win the NCAA championship, but why do we want a particular brand of shoe or phone or perfume? Is it because we think we will be able to appropriate some of the glamor of the celebrities who endorse them or the happiness of the people in commercials who seem to be having so much fun? And how can companies sell products to consumers who skip the ads on television and use pop-up blockers online?

This provocative new film takes current marketing trends and tweaks them just slightly for a sharp, witty, and revealing take that shows us, among other things, that we never really leave middle school when it comes to wanting to be just like the cool kids.

A new family moves into a wealthy neighborhood. They are attractive, charming, and very friendly. They love to entertain and they are always helpful in suggesting products to help you feel better, smarter, and more successful. “What are friends for?” they smile when thanked.

They seem to have it all — and by that I mean every high-end, desirable, utterly enticing gadget, fashion, and accessory you might see in a luxury magazine or on a red carpet or in the SkyMall catalogue. Their name is Jones, as in keeping up with — and as in Jonesing for all of their goodies in an attempt to achieve their effortless glamor.

They’re not a family. They are “stealth marketers,” placed in wealthy neighborhoods to push products. Kate (Demi Moore) is in charge. She has been “Mrs. Jones” with six different “husbands” in different neighborhoods. The new “Mr. Jones” this go-round (David Duchovny) is a former golf pro and car salesman named Steve. Kate teaches him the power of ripple effects — you sell more by influencing the local influencers like the most popular hairdresser in town and the guy who works in the pro shop at the country club. Meanwhile, the fake Jones kids are in high school, pushing lipstick and a rum drink in a sack. “You can’t just sell things; you’re here to sell a lifestyle, an attitude,” their supervisor (60’s supermodel Lauren Hutton) crisply reminds them. “If people want you, they’ll want what you’ve got.”

All goes well at first, the smooth operation contrasting with their neighbor’s clumsy efforts to sell her Mary Kay-style cosmetics. Steve reassures himself that he’s only “making a match between great products and the people that want them.” But then things go very badly, with tragic consequences.

Duchovny and Moore are just right, both deploying and mocking their movie star glamor. In the past, both stars have traded on a talent for blankness (yes, that is a talent), allowing us to project our own feelings onto them. Here, both are a bit more vulnerable and accessible. The exceptional supporting cast includes Amber Heard and Ben Hollingsworth, as their fake children and Chris Williams as the hairdresser. And watch for the movie’s own stealth marketing through its product placements — almost all of the items used by the Joneses are real. If you leave the theater thinking you really should pick up one of those phones with real-time video or a Japanese toilet, ask yourself why.

CONTEST ALERT: I have three DVDs to give away to the first three people who send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with “Jones” in the subject line. Don’t forget to include your address! Good luck, and thanks very much to Fox for providing the DVDs.

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!

Posted on July 19, 2010 at 8:00 am

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for sexual content, some drug references, and language
Profanity:	Brief strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Social drinking, drunk driving, smoking, drug humor
Violence/ Scariness:	Comic slap
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	2004
Date Released to DVD:	2004
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00005JMYL

This week’s release of “Ramona and Beezus” made me think of the movie where I first noticed two of its stars, Josh Duhamel and Ginnifer Goodwin:
This cute romantic comedy is better than it needs to be, thanks to the talents of three up-and-coming stars, impeccable comic timing from the supporting actors, and a director (Robert Luketic of Legally Blonde) who knows how to make it all as shiny as a new copper penny.

The set-up is taken from Cinderella, with the part of the fairy godmother played by the internet.

Kate Bosworth plays Rosalee Futch, a sunny check-out girl at a Piggly Wiggly grocery store in a small West Virginia town. Her best friends are Cathy (the terrific Gennifer Goodwin of Mona Lisa Smile) and Pete (Topher Grace of “That Seventies Show”).

Rosalee wins an online charity contest for a date with movie superstar Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel). She is whisked away to Hollywood for a stay in a luxury hotel and a glamorous evening with the man of her dreams, or at least the man who plays the man of her dreams.

Tad is better at playing an all-American boy next door than being one. As his agent (or is it his manager — they’re both named Richard Levy) says of one tabloid photo: “Congratulations! You’re actually drinking, driving, smoking, leering, and groping at the same time!” They set up the charity contest in order to create a more wholesome image for Tad.

Tad is charmed by Rosalee’s unpretentious goodness, and he follows her back to West Virginia, interfering with Pete’s plans to declare his feelings for Rosalee.

It is impossible to believe that Pete and Rosalee could have existed for five minutes in the same town without its being clear to both of them and everyone in the county how they felt about each other. But this is a fairy tale, with Rosalee the kind of girl who is so innocent that she not only wears her retainer on her big date; she takes it out at the table when it is time to eat. And Bosworth and Grace almost make us believe that they are simply just too adorable to figure out that they should probably be dating. Pete has a tiny bit of ironic self-awareness (he threatens to tear Tad apart with his bare hands “…or with vicious rhetoric!”) that keeps things from getting too sugary. And Duhamel is simply terrific as Tad. He has all of the confidence, charisma, and screen power to make us believe that Tad is a movie star. But he also manages to show us Tad’s uncertainty, insecurity, and dim sense that Rosalee does have something worth wanting. The tough part is making that work in a romantic comedy without making it too broad or too deep. We want to care about Tad, but not too much. Duhamel gets it exactly right.

Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes as the two Richard Levys and Gary Cole as Rosalee’s starstruck dad (watch his t-shirts) lend additional snap to the story. Kathryn Hahn contributes a lovely performance as a bartender who is smitten with Pete and Ginnifer Goodwin is adorable as the best friend. It may be romantic fluff, but it is brightly done and all-but-irresistibly cute.

Parents should know that the movie includes some strong language, drinking and smoking (scenes in a bar, character drinks to drown his sorrows), drug humor, brief barf and toilet humor, and sexual references and situations. But the movie has a positive message about sexual values, as Rosalie’s decision not to have sex with Tad is an important part of his developing respect for her and wanting to get to know her better.

Families who see this movie should talk about the ways we think about celebrities. Why was it so easy for Rosalie and Cathy to think that they knew what Tad was like? What is Tad really like? Did some of Rosalie’s goodness “rub off” on him? What will be different for him? Why was it so hard for Pete to tell Rosalie how he felt?

Families who enjoy this movie should see the classic musical Bye Bye Birdie about the havoc brought to a small town when a rock star arrives to get “one last kiss” from a randomly chosen fan (played by Ann-Margret). Mature audiences will also David Mamet’s trenchantly funny State and Main about a movie company’s effect on a small New England town.

Our Family Wedding

Posted on July 14, 2010 at 8:26 am

As wilted as last weekend’s bridesmaid bouquet, “Our Family Wedding” manages to be offensive to African-Americans, Latinos, women, men, and sentient life forms of any kind. There may be a fine line between perpetuating stereotypes and making fun of them, but it is a line, and one that this film never makes it across. The only real connection the audience will have is with the actors, not the characters, as we ask ourselves over and over how so many talented people got stuck in this mess.

Every wedding is a culture clash, and there are plays, movies, and endless favorite family anecdotes about unexpected encounters with traditions and cuisine and even prejudices. But this story about the collision of cultures when a young woman of Mexican heritage marries an African-American has no real sense of its characters or their cultures and deteriorates quickly into superficial signifiers. The Frito Bandito has more ethnic sensitivity than anyone in this movie. A typically undernourished exchange has the groom’s father (a slumming Forest Whitaker) insisting that black traditions must be reflected in the ceremony but unable to remember any. There is no humor, no warmth, and no chemistry whatsoever between any of the characters, including the young couple we are supposed to be rooting for. And there’s no story — just emotional and sometimes literal mayhem in a lot of different locations.

Things that are supposed to be funny but are not include two different incidents of accidental Viagra taking, one involving the bride’s father and one involving a goat, a bartender who insists on being called a “mixologist,” excitable old ladies of both ethnic groups, a destroyed wedding cake, initial antagonism between the fathers over a towing incident that deteriorates into racial insults and subsequent bonding over getting drunk in a club (you don’t want to know the name of the drink they order from the mixologist) and dancing with lots of pretty girls. Things that are supposed to be endearing but are not include a best friends-turning to romance between Whitaker and the criminally underused Regina King and a rekindling of romance between the bride’s parents (a bland Carlos Mencia and Diana-Maria Riva). And it is truly unforgivable when there is a credit sequence series of photos suggesting yet another round of low-jinks ahead.

Related Tags:

Comedy Romance

The Bounty Hunter

Posted on July 13, 2010 at 8:00 am

Jennifer Aniston is a beautiful and talented woman, but this film had me thinking some very mean thoughts about her, thoughts like, “She is too old for this kind of movie” and “Probably not a good idea to make a movie that seems like a lesser version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, best known for documenting her real-life husband falling in love with his co-star.”

If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen this movie: battling exes squabble as he (Milo the bounty hunter played by Gerard Butler) tries to take her (Nic the journalist played by Aniston) to jail while she tries to persuade him that she’s working on an important and very dangerous story. Will they get shot at? Will there be chases? Will there be a romantic interlude interrupted by a mis-communication? You don’t even have to see the trailer to have seen this movie. You already know everything that’s going to happen.

Aniston is too old for this movie. Butler looks pudgy-faced and uncomfortable. Despite rumors of an off-screen romance, there are no sparks between them and we never get any sense of what brought them together or any relationship between what we are told about their issues and any aspect of their behavior toward each other or anyone else. This is one of those films where if anyone behaved in a rational manner, the whole thing would have been over in 20 minutes.

It does have a good chase scene at the beginning and a couple of briefly interesting goons (Milo owes some gambling debts). But it lets us down repeatedly by wasting the time and talents of the fabulous Christine Baranski (as Nic’s glamorous mother), SNL’s Jason Sudeikis as Nic’s co-worker, and Carol Kane (with a new set of teeth) and Adam LeFevre as bed-and-breakfast owners. It is supposed to be heartwarming and humorous that Nic’s mother has some boundary issues when it comes to Nic’s romantic life. It’s just icky. It’s supposed to be funny that her co-worker keeps trying to persuade her to get romantic with him. It’s just icky — until he is mistaken for Milo and gets beat up by the goons, when it becomes not just icky but ooky. It’s even supposed to be funny that Nic tases Milo. Nope. This falls into that category of movie that exists to be perpetually playing on airplanes — because when the pilot interrupts to tell you to look out the window you won’t miss anything.

Related Tags:

Action/Adventure Comedy Crime Romance

Grease: The Singalong Version!

Posted on July 11, 2010 at 12:06 pm

It’s the one that you want!

You probably already know the words, but it’s great to see them up on the big screen and it is really fun to sing along. For just one moment, we’re all students at Rydell High.

Tell me more!

Check here to see where it is playing and order tickets online as many shows are already sold out. If your city is not on the list, demand it!

NOTE: “Grease” was rated PG when it first came out, before the introduction of the PG-13 rating. It is now rated PG-13 for sexual content including references, teen smoking and drinking, and language. Parents should know that the themes include a possible teen pregnancy and the movie suggests that the way to get a boyfriend is to act like a tramp. This is all presented in a heightened, parody tone but it may be disturbing to younger audiences.