THE HANGOVER – todd phillips – 4.4 / 10
Continuing the long tradition of mainstream comedies with a trailer that’s far funnier than the film itself (see also: Old School (perhaps not coincidentally also directed by Todd Phillips) wherein Will Ferrell’s Frank the Tank went, in a single cut, from protesting that he couldn’t drink because he and his wife had a ‘nice little Sunday planned’ to stripping off his clothes and yelling, ‘We’re all going streaking.’), The Hangover is not nearly as uproariously hilarious as it’s ad campaign made it out to be. There are funny moments in it to be sure (almost all of them due to Zach Galifianakis’s oddball performance; his bizarre man crush on Bradley Cooper’s Phil being the highlight) but it never lives up to the absolute debauchery promised when the guys wake up the morning after their wild and crazy Vegas night to find a tiger in their bathroom and the groom missing in action.
Wisely, the film omits showing what actually happened that night. Not so wisely, the plot of the film, such as it is, involves the guys piecing together the events of that night as they search for their missing friend. There was really no way the actual events could possibly have lived up to the absurdity promised by their aftermath. And so when they do begin to find out what actually happened, the viewer can’t help but feel a little let down. I could almost hear the audience around me asking, ‘That’s it? Really?’
Overall, though, the film is fun and amusing with each of the main actors perfectly cast and playing their roles to the hilt. And if it were not for the random fear of homosexuals and hatred of Asians, you could say the film was harmless fun. But the weird strain of intolerance that runs through the film taints it, not least because it’s never paid off. If, for instance, Phil had to, at some point, confront his homophobia, the film might have been interesting. As it is, it’s just one more film that will be largely remembered for a funny moment or two (in this case that would be Mike Tyson singing along to Phil Collins's 'In the Air Tonight') and nothing more.
LAND OF THE LOST – brad silberling – 2.4 / 10
Less a comprehensive story and more a string of loosely connected things the filmmakers apparently found funny, Brad Silberling’s reimagining of the late 70’s cult television series is neither funny nor endearing. None of it makes all that much sense (like how, for instance, Will Ferrell’s Dr. Rick Marshall can be both a genius on the level of Einstein and a self-indulgent moron) and none of it is all that compelling. There are a couple bits with Matt Lauer that seem more like cross-promotion than organic story elements, some nonsense about crystals that control portals to other times and places, and a running gag about a primate character who’s obsessed with Anna Friel’s breasts.
I spent most of the film wondering why Danny McBride’s character is named ‘Will’ since this means that Will Ferrell spends most of the movie calling out his own name. Maybe it’s just because I was bored and looking for something to occupy my time, but by the end of the film I was starting to wonder if maybe this was done on purpose to reinforce the association of Will Ferrell with this film.
EASY VIRTUE – stephan elliot – 5.9 / 10
For a period piece set in Great Britain in the 1920s, Easy Virtue is awfully bawdy and coarse. Perhaps that owes to the presence of an American in the film’s story, an American played by Jessica Biel who, for some reason I can’t quite figure out (maybe it’s her appearance (far too angular and muscle-bound for the early twentieth century) or maybe just the fact that she can’t act) sticks out like a sore thumb in a period film. That sort of works for this movie, though, since her character, the car racing wife of a mannered British aristocrat brought home to meet the in-laws for the first time, is meant to rub everyone the wrong way. But in the scenes where she’s called upon to do some heavy emotional lifting, she is hopelessly overmatched, calling attention to the stilted dialogue and abrupt shifts in tone that the better actors easily glide over.
Still, the film has its moments, particularly every time Colin Firth’s rumpled patriarch is on screen. Firth, a veteran of many films of this sort, is at ease here in way that Biel never is. He provides the film with its biggest laughs and only real emotional throughline. His is the only character the audience cares about, but since he’s only on screen for a quarter of the film, he can’t single-handedly save it.
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