Posted on January 27, 2016 at 1:35 pm
Alex Winter directs, Keanu Reeves narrates (from the future!) and Paul Rudd plays quantum chess with Stephen Hawking in this delightful short film.
Posted on July 19, 2015 at 10:36 pm
“Ant-Man” has great special effects and a fun storyline but its real strength is the cast, several of my favorite performers. They may look familiar.
Paul Rudd has been one of the most appealing actors in Hollywood since “Clueless” came out 20 years ago this week. He is most often thought of as a likeable comic actor in films like “Anchorman” and “Role Models,” and as a light leading man in romantic comedies from the awful (“Dinner for Schmucks,” “Wanderlust”) to the ambitious but not entirely successful (“How Do You Know”). He is game for just about anything, as shown in micro-budget and experimental films like “Prince Avalanche” and the web series parody of reality dating shows, “Burning Love.” He appeared in “Romeo + Juliet” as Paris, the guy Juliet’s parents wanted her to marry, and as Nick Carraway in the TV version of “The Great Gatsby.” He was outstanding in the challenging role of an insecure but very sincere man who is transformed by a manipulative art student in “The Shape of Things.” I think his most neglected gem is “I Could Never Be Your Woman” (horrible title), a very smart romantic comedy with Michelle Pfeiffer.
Evangeline Lilly spends a lot of time in “Ant-Man” wanting to get in on the action. Not surprising given her earlier role in “The Hobbit,” where she is a full-on action heroine.
I’m a huge fan of Corey Stoll, who plays the villain in “Ant-Man.” I first noticed him as Ernest Hemingway in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” a performance of great wit and verve.
He played a compromised but not evil Congressman in “House of Cards” and a sympathetic administrator of a jobs program for refugees in “The Good Lie.”
Michael Douglas is Hollywood royalty, a two-time Oscar winner (for producing “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and acting in “Wall Street,” husband of an Oscar winner (Catherine Zeta-Jones), and son of an Oscar winner (Kirk Douglas). His career took off with the 1970’s television series “The Streets of San Francisco.”
This speech is not only an icon of movie history, it is a telling prediction that if anything understated what was ahead in the financial markets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Da1tDKFfno
Posted on July 16, 2015 at 5:48 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Middle School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence |
| Profanity: | A few bad words |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Alcohol |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Extensive comic-book style action violence, characters injured |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | July 17, 2015 |
| Date Released to DVD: | December 7, 2015 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B011DHP3GY |
San Diego Comic-Con is known for big, loud, and splashy promotions for movies and television series, especially those featuring superheroes. So it was a delight to come across the tiny “billboard” for “Ant-Man,” smaller than a shoebox, that was the only indication that a major comic book movie was about to open. That same wry, refreshingly unassuming tone lends a lot of charm to a superhero character whose powers may seem at first unimpressive.
And the man who plays that character brings a lot of charm as well. Paul Rudd, for two decades one of the most appealing actors in Hollywood, plays Scott, an electrical engineer turned Occupy Wall Street-style Robin Hood, about to be released from prison after three years, and determined to go straight and spend as much time as possible with his young daughter.
But no one wants to hire an ex-con, and when he gets a job at Baskin-Robbins by not telling them about his record, they find out and fire him. Desperate to make the child support payments he needs to be able to get visitation rights, he agrees to crack a safe that his friend Luis (Michael Peña) promises him is a sure thing. It isn’t. The only thing in the safe is a strange-looking suit.
It is the invention of Dr. Pym (Michael Douglas), who trains Scott to become Ant-Man, able to shrink himself to the size of an ant and to bring with him legions of ants. He can ride a flying ant and he can send stinging ants to torment his foes.
His foe in this case is a rival scientist who wants to weaponize the shrinking technology. And there is also the rival scientist’s most trusted colleague, Hope (Evangeline Lilly).
There is a “Honey I Shrunk the Superhero” element to the story, and director Peyton Reed has a lot of fun with it. Scott has one scene in an architect’s model rendering of a new facility and another in a child’s room, where the thundering locomotive turns out to be, to normal-sized eyes, a Thomas the Tank engine toy. Rudd is just right as the sincere, smart guy who wants to do the right thing and Douglas is terrifically charismatic as Pym. There’s nothing snarky or air quote-ish about the story, but there is a recognition that this is a superhero the size of a grain of rice. In this case, that’s super enough.
NOTE: Stay THROUGH the credits for TWO extra scenes, one involving members of a very special group of crime-fighters starting with an A.
Parents should know that this film includes extensive comic-book/superhero peril and violence, guns, fights, animal and human characters injured ad killed, some disturbing images, family issues including divorce, child support, and custody, some strong language
Family discussion: Why did Dr. Pym trust Scott? Which of Ant-Man’s powers would you like to have and how would you use them?
If you like this, try: “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “The Avengers,” and “Iron Man” and some other shrinking person movies like “The Incredible Shrinking Man” and “Fantastic Voyage”
Posted on April 18, 2015 at 3:25 pm
Okay, I admit I was skeptical. I was thinking along the lines of Teeny Little Super Guy from Sesame Street. But I love Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and Corey Stoll and this trailer has me sold.
Posted on December 17, 2013 at 6:00 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 For crude and sexual content, drug use, language and comic violence |
| Profanity: | Strong and crude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Comic but graphic violence |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: | December 18, 2013 |
| Date Released to DVD: | March 31, 2014 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B0083XXVFW |
Will Ferrell and his crew beat the sophomore slump with just the right mix of stuff we want to see again (yes, there will be jazz flute, a rumble with the other news teams featuring wildly improbable surprise guest stars and weapons, and a clueless character being yanked into a new understanding of women) and stuff that’s new (some surprisingly sharp satire about the current state of the news business and its origins in the shift to the 24 hour news cycle in the 80’s — and a twist on the infamous closet of potent man-scents featuring Sex Panther).
The first obligation of a sequel is to undo everything that happened in part one. Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), married, with a son, and sharing the anchoring duties in San Diego, find their happily ever after ending torn asunder when their boss (the first of several surprise guest stars) promotes her to a network job and fires him as local anchor. He tries working as an announcer at Sea World, and is soon on the brink of losing that job, too. Ron Burgundy was put on this earth to “have salon-quality hair and read the news.” What can he do next?
Something happens that no one could have anticipated. A zillionaire (think cross between Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch) gets the idea for a 24 hour news channel. And that means they’ll hire anyone. Soon, Ron gets the band back together (Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and David Koechner) and they’re on their way to two crazy destinations: New York and the 80’s.
“Anchorman” was not a huge hit when it was first released, but it has become, well, kind of a big deal, since it came out (especially unrated) on DVD. It is one of those films that improves on repeated viewing, not because there are subtle jokes you miss the first time around but because its silly but good-natured humor make it particularly suitable for repeated viewings with friends reciting the catch phrases and acting out the goofiest bits. That primes the audience for this next one, with a lot of silly, over-the-top comedy and “what were we thinking”-music, personalities, and styles of the era as in the first film. (The terrific soundtrack includes classics like “Ride With the Wind,” “Muskrat Love,” “Feels so Good,” and “This is It.”)
In the original, the set-up was having the smug, macho world of the local anchors was invaded by a woman — and one who was vastly more intelligent and professional than they were. This time, there is a woman who is not a subordinate or a peer; Ron Burgundy and his team have a new boss, Linda Jackson (Meagan Good). She is not only a woman; she is black. This provokes a whole extra layer of fear and fascination in Ron Burgundy.
Another difference — he is not the alpha male at the new station. His team goes on the air in the middle of the night. Prime time goes to the handsome and arrogant Jack Lime (James Marsden). Ron rashly bets Jack that he will beat him in the ratings.
The sneaky genius of this movie is the way it makes sense out of Ron’s kind of genius response to this idiotic bet, and the way it explains pretty much everything that’s gone wrong with the world ever since. It turns out that the sense of superiority that keeps us laughing at Ron Burgundy may be overshadowed by his sense of superiority in laughing at us.
Parents should know that this film has very raunchy and explicit humor for a PG-13, with a lot of crude jokes and strong language, including bigotry humor. Characters drink and use drugs and there is comic but graphic violence including a suicide attempt. NOTE that there are alternate versions available including a much raunchier unrated version.
Family discussion: Why was Ron so afraid of Linda? Who should own the news?
If you like this, try: the original “Anchorman”
