thoughts on This is the End

Jay Baruchel (all of the actors in this movie play versions of themselves, BTW) goes to visit Seth Rogen in L.A. Jay claims to hate L.A., and Seth's L.A. friends; he complains when Seth suggests that they go to a party at James Franco's house. They go anyway, and while they are there, the apocalypse begins; some people are raptured up to Heaven, while others (including a coked-up Michael Cera) are sucked down into Hell. Others, including Jay, Seth, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, and Danny McBride, are left to stick it out on Earth, where they will remain until they either a) do a good enough deed to be raptured up to Heaven or b) kill each other. These rules are never exactly spelled out, but the guys (who hunker down in James Franco's house) eventually figure it out. In the meantime, they (in no particular order) do all the drugs in the house; chisel through the floor to get to the jugs of water in the basement; are chased and attacked by demons; are visited by Emma Watson, who robs them with an axe after overhearing a disturbing conversation; and (and this was my personal favorite part) film a sequel to Pineapple Express, with Jonah Hill playing Woody Harrelson. Oh yeah, and eventually they have occasion to perform an exorcism. And also, when they finally leave the house, they have a run-in with a gang of cannibals (and Channing Tatum). And also, eventually there is a choreographed dance number with the Backstreet Boys.

In other words, it is basically a movie with few rules, where anything can happen at any time. Basically, any time you start to feel like things are getting a little bit tedious, something new happens to shake things up. Sometimes it's funny. Often it's crude. I laughed several times, but also was more than ready for it to be over by the end.

Probably the most interesting part of the whole thing was the group dynamic, and how it changes over the course of the movie. James Franco seems to be sort of in love with Seth Rogen (though nothing really ever comes of this; it just creates some funny/awkward moments). Jay dislikes everyone except Seth, but especially Jonah Hill. Jonah seems to be over-the-top nice, but secretly also hates Jay, to the extent of actually praying for his death. James hates Danny McBride; this starts out as more of a secret dislike, but grows over the course of the movie. Danny is generally obnoxious and disregards all of the rules the group tries to put in place.

I don't know. Like I said, there are some funny parts, and I like some of the actors in it, though not all. It seems like a better comedy about how people act when they're trapped together for a long period of time and facing the end of the world could have been made with the same cast, though. This all just kind of seemed random and thrown together.

thoughts on Before Midnight

Jesse and Celine (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy), characters we first met in 1995's Before Sunrise and 2004's Before Sunset, are older now (Jesse mentions that he is forty-one; Celine is maybe a few years younger, based on a couple of comments she makes). Their lives have become more complicated than they were even in Before Sunset, when he was married with a son; now, Jesse and Celine have been together (though not actually married, we learn) for several years, have twin daughters, and seem to still be in love, though she accuses him of resenting the fact that being with her means that he is not in Chicago with his son.

I personally was a little confused, for much of the movie, on why she was so dead-set against even discussing moving there. From my point of view, a father really shouldn't live that far away from his children, and since Jesse also has children with Celine now and we are told that getting full custody of his son (Henry) and moving him to Paris with them isn't going to happen, them moving to Chicago seems like the only viable option. She seems to be afraid, though; several times in the movie, she adopts a "bimbo" persona that she claims is what Jesse secretly wants, and though I don't really see any evidence that that's true, she seems scared of losing herself, of living in his shadow, and that being in a serious relationship and having children will keep her from accomplishing what she really wants to accomplish in life. While it is easier to understand his point of view, and while his character is funnier and generally more likable, her concerns aren't invalid or completely out of left field.

Their discussion about their relationship-- what it is, where it's heading, what they feel for each other, what they want, how they've wronged each other, and whether they've betrayed each other over the years-- is incredibly compelling. The movie, like the others in the series, takes place over the course of less than a day, and largely consists of the two of them talking (though we meet Henry, Jesse and Celine's daughters (Nina and Ella), and the friends they are staying with in Greece). Yet I hesitated to get up and use the restroom during the movie because I didn't want to miss anything, and when it ended, I was disappointed that we didn't get to stay with these characters a bit longer. So far, the movies in this series have come out once every nine years, and I wouldn't be at all opposed to them continuing to come out with the same regularity. I really enjoy them, and don't think there's much else (if anything) like them.

Great movie. Would highly recommend.

summer TV: Men at Work

So I used to sometimes start getting Netflix in the summer, or just rent a bunch of TV shows on DVD or check them out from the library, but the last two summers, it's randomly been all about reruns of Veronica Mars and The Big Bang Theory. However, twice now I have caught Men at Work, which features Danny Masterson, a.k.a. Hyde from That '70s Show and Michael Cassidy, a.k.a. Zach from The O.C. (Remember Zach? Remember when Seth went away to Portland or wherever without saying goodbye Summer, and when he came back, she was dating like a better-looking version of him? And Seth kind of begrudgingly liked him, and they wound up creating a comic book together? And we all kind of begrudgingly liked him, too, even though we wanted Seth and Summer to get back together? Anyway.).

The first episode of Men at Work I saw was kind of stupid; Michael Cassidy's character, Tyler, had a new girlfriend that he really liked, only he found out she'd had a threesome with his friend Gibbs (James Lesure), so he couldn't kiss her without picturing Gibbs. First of all, the threesome thing. Television would have us believe that at least one person in every group of friends has had one, which I don't think is true. Second of all, the whole "imagining your girlfriend as someone you really don't want to be getting intimate with" has been done a bunch of different times, and it's never that funny.

The second episode I saw changed my tune, and in fact had me commenting to people over the course of the next couple of days, "Have you seen that Men at Work show? It's funny, sometimes!" The plot of this episode was that they have all been invited to Neal's (Adam Busch's) girlfriend's dad's fifth wedding, though none of them really know why; Tyler makes some comment like, "The only reason a guy that rich would invite guys like us to do anything is if he was hunting us for sport." Wackiness ensues at the wedding. I found the following things interesting and/or funny:

1) Neal's girlfriend's dad (Neal's girlfriend's name is Amy, BTW) is played by J.K. Simmons, a.k.a. Juno's dad.

2) Amy's dad has flown in Amy's ex-boyfriend, hoping that she will want to get back together with him. The ex-boyfriend is played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who we last saw pop up randomly and awesomely as Max's roommate on Happy Endings. Mark-Paul Gosselaar!

3) Milo (Danny Masterson) is seated next to some random dude who offers him moonshine. The following hilarious conversations ensue:

Random Dude: Hi, My name's Darrell, with a D.
Milo: How else would you spell it?
Darrell: Oh, I don't know. I spell mine with a D.

Milo (after drinking some moonshine): Whoa. What is this, paint thinner?
Darrell: Not JUST paint thinner.

Woman Gibbs Tries to Hook Up With (about the moonshine): Is this safe to drink?
Darrell: What are you, a narc?

4) Everyone gets drunk on moonshine and wakes up the next morning very hungover and unable to remember the events of the previous night. However, Milo wakes up with a 3rd place soccer trophy ("Who got first and second?," he wonders), and there is a bottle of champagne at the door of their cabin with a note congratulating the "happy couple" on getting married; apparently, someone other than Amy's dad got married the night before. They initially think it was Neal and Amy, but MPG tells them that it wasn't. They then think it was Gibbs and the woman he met. Amy's dad shows up, however, and reveals that it was...Milo and Tyler (or as Amy's dad calls them, "the hobo and the pretty girl"). "That's weird," Milo says. However, though they're both straight, neither of them gets all, "What?! Why would we get married?! We're not gay!," about the whole thing, which was pleasantly surprising. Later in the episode, their friends catch them setting up an online wedding registry; though they plan to get an annulment, they're enthusiastic about the idea of getting some gifts first, and wonder if they can register for Knicks tickets. And of course, at the end of the wedding revelation scene, in which the characters slowly remember details from the night before, Darrell randomly pops out of a trunk all, "I had a great time this weekend. Oh, someone seems to have thrown up in your trunk."

So...yeah. I laughed out loud several times. I think it'll be a decent summer show.

thoughts on Now You See Me

So, last night I dragged my still-hung-up-on-the-series-finale-of-Smash ass away from the Smash YouTube clips and Television Without Pity recaps and went out to see this movie. First of all: I rarely go to see movies at night, right after they come out. Movies get crowded. Second of all: apparently there are very few PG-13 movies out right now and all of the kids have already seen the new Iron Man, because there were A LOT of teens at this movie. Whew!

Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco (whose name I didn't know before looking it up for this review, who is apparently James Franco's younger brother, and who totally looks it) star as magicians of various levels of fame, various talents, and various levels of legitimacy. Woody Harrelson is a "mentalist" who seems to use his powers of "mind-reading" and hypnotism mainly to con people. Isla Fisher has a Vegas act where she is handcuffed, dropped into a tank of water, and then must get herself loose before flesh-eating piranhas are dropped into the tank with her. Jesse Eisenberg seems to be the most famous of the group, but in the opening sequence that introduces the characters, we only see him do a (granted, very impressive) card trick. Dave Franco seems to be the most low-level, as his opening trick amounts to pick-pocketing.

The four of them receive cards to go to a certain address at a certain time. One year later, they are on a Vegas stage; it looks as if they manage to, with the help of a seemingly randomly chosen audience member, rob a bank in Paris, even though the audience member is the only one who leaves the room, and he is only gone for a few minutes. How is this possible? An FBI agent played by Mark Ruffalo is tasked to find out, helped by an Interpol agent played by Melanie Laurent and eventually by a former magician played by Morgan Freeman.

It's really fun, you guys. As shown in the movie, magic is mostly an illusion...but it's still clever, fun to watch, and impressive if done well. The four of them may not have used magic to rob the bank...but how DID they manage to make millions of dollars fall from the ceiling of a Vegas casino? The film follows Mark Ruffalo as he tries to figure it out, and stop the group (who call themselves the Four Horsemen) before they commit more crimes. Along the way, we are treated to another New Orleans-set heist during Mardi Gras, some car chases, and some fun interrogation-room scenes in which the Four Horsemen frustrate the agents by freeing themselves from handcuffs, reading their minds, and other such tomfoolery. It's one of those movies where you know that you, the viewer, are always going to be one step behind the main characters, so you might as well just sit back and enjoy the ride.

I commented to my friends after the movie that Jesse Eisenberg pretty much always plays himself, or at least the same character, but that I always like him. In this movie, the same is actually kind of true of all of the actors; you will notice that in my recap, I only referred to them by the actors' names, and not the characters'. The truth is, I didn't even remember many of the characters' names, and most of the characters aren't really developed past the actors' more recognizable qualities. Jesse Eisenberg's character thinks he's smarter than everyone else and usually is. Isla Fisher is funny and charming; I've seen that woman pretty much singlehandedly redeem not-so-great movies (Confessions of a Shopaholic, anyone?), and while she doesn't get tons to do here, it's fun to see her in an ensemble of other likable actors. Woody Harrelson is funny and kind of smarmy. The fact that the characters aren't super-developed isn't a criticism in this scenario, though, because the fun of the movie is in the magic/heists/speculation about how they did it; the actors need to be instantly likeable and seem smart enough to pull something like this off while shady enough to be involved in crime. They all fit the bill.

Bottom line: fun, entertaining movie with a solid ensemble cast of actors. The other movies I've seen this movie have been BIG (Iron Man 3 and The Great Gatsby), and it was enjoyable to see something a little lower-key. I'd recommend.