Horrible Bosses 2

With the comedy genre maybe more than any other successful genre, I think the sequel can be a dangerous thing. What was funny about the first one? Can that success and formula be duplicated? Are things tweaked too much or not enough? I'm looking at you Hangover trilogy. Would anyone be truly sad if that series had ended after the first flick? Nope, it's a classic. So what about this follow-up? Let's see where 2014's Horrible Bosses 2 stands.

After avoiding the debacle that was trying to kill their bosses at work, Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) have moved onto bigger and better things. In fact, the trio of friends have gone into business together, developing a shower product that seems ready to take off on the market. They just need a buyer, and they seem to have found one in Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz), a powerful executive with a catalog featuring an open spot for their product. Well, he did. He takes advantage of these business novices and leaves them high and dry, stealing their product right out from under them. They've invested all their money into the business, and now they are just days away from the company and their product being foreclosed on. What to do? The three wannabe crooks head back to a life of crime. No, it's not murder this time around. They're going to kidnap Hanson's son and get enough money to pay off their loan with the ransom. What could possibly go wrong?

Released back in 2011, Horrible Bosses was a solid, funny comedy with a cool premise and a fun cast. I gave it 3 stars but still can't quite put my finger on it. The first movie was really funny but missing that special something. I'll be giving this 2014 sequel the same rating -- 3 stars -- but it's better. From director Sean Anders, 'Bosses 2' feels more comfortable in its own skin. It's a funny premise again where just about everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But here's the guts of it. I laughed a lot at this one. I laughed out loud. I laughed a lot more than I did with the original. I still struggle to review comedies at times, but this one's easy. I was entertained throughout and a goofy premise and fun cast provides some great laughs. And in sequel mode, it tries something different, not necessarily going for status quo. Yes, kidnapping is different than murder, and that's what I'm counting as different. Deal with it.

This one's pretty simple. Do you like Bateman, Sudeikis and Day? Do you like them working together? If you answered 'Yes,' then you're safe. If you answered 'No,' then this might not be the movie for you. Their on-screen chemistry is easy and funny and does a good job showing three friends who have been friends forever. They've got a rhythm when they talk, inside jokes like Dale insisting he always sits in the middle of the backseat ("I always sit in the middle!") and a history that's far before anything we see in either movie. Bateman is the quiet, usually frustrated leader, Sudeikis the kinda off the wall sidekick, and Day (to quote It's Always Sunny) is the wildcard. You just have to go along with things. Forced to take drastic measures, this trio of friends decides kidnapping (or 'kidnaping' maybe) is their best option. Let's do this!

The rest of the cast is excellent as well, bringing back some familiar faces while introducing some fresh blood. Waltz is underused as the money-minded, calculating businessman so the best addition to the cast is his son, Rex, played to perfection by Chris Pine. One of the big rising stars in Hollywood, Pine just brings this crazy, frenetic energy to the part, especially when he takes the lead in his own kidnapping. His chemistry with the kidnapping trio is perfect throughout, especially their scene planning how to pull it off. Returning from the original are Jennifer Aniston as Dale's former boss, a sex addict who takes a keen interest in what Dale and Co. are up to, Jamie Foxx as "Motherf****r" Jones, the trio's criminal muse, and Kevin Spacey as Nick's former boss, now locked up but still offering advice to the bumbling crooks. Cool to see those three back for more shenanigans.

The humor at times is pretty dirty, and a handful of times the seeming improvisation tries too hard. They're going for a big laugh, and it just isn't there, especially when the three friends throw their voices to call with ransom demands. For the most part though, the dead on arrival laughs are over pretty quickly, getting back to the goofy fun. I liked the whole movie a lot, but felt like it really hit its stride in the last hour when Pine's Rex gets involved with the kidnapping plot. Their brainstorming session is a great montage, and when we see how their plan is supposed to work....well, we know it won't. The actual kidnapping and ransom drop is dumb and fun and goofy. Stay tuned through the early parts of the credits too for some good laughs as we see all the flubs during filming.

Definitely worth seeking out. Fun cast, very funny sequel.

Horrible Bosses 2 (2014): ***/****

See No Evil, Hear No Evil

Ah, the gimmick. When it works, it can be great. When it doesn't, that blasted thing can ruin an entire movie single-handed. I was skeptical of the gimmick/premise from 1989's See No Evil, Hear No Evil, but the talent involved was too much to pass up. And throwing in that I've never heard of the movie and never heard anyone talk about it, I went in with a clean slate.

Running his newstand in a downtown NYC skyscraper, Dave Lyons (Gene Wilder) goes about his day-to-day work like nothing's going on. Well, there is. He's deaf, but Dave is pretty smooth as long as he can read the person's lips he's talking to. One day, he hires Wally Karew (Richard Pryor), the two having some struggle communicating almost immediately. Why exactly? Wally is blind. How can they make it work? They do, finding a way and a rhythm, but it is relatively short-lived. One morning, a man walks in demanding to see Karew but before anything can be resolved....the man is shot. Dave never gets a good look at the killer -- only seeing her legs as she walks away -- while Wally only smells her perfume as she walks away scot-free. That's one problem but just the start. The police walk in to find Dave and Wally perched over the body. They're suspects No. 1 and No. 2.

Okay, about that gimmick thing. There's more than one. A couple actually in this Arthur Hiller-directed comedy.  In the third of four pairings between Pryor and Wilder, the laughs are there from beginning to end in a 103-minute movie. Critics ripped it apart pretty good for those gimmicks. One works better than the other. The one that doesn't? A blind guy who's good friends with a deaf guy sounds almost sophomoric, but nope, that works. What doesn't work is the pretty forced, overdone way to get the duo into some kooky situations. The murder isn't even the dumb part, but what comes after it. None of it is a deal-breaker, but you can't help but shake your head at it at times, especially the MacGuffin that ties it all together.

It isn't something that kills the movie because, well, because Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder are a comedy match made in heaven. Having already worked together on Silver Streak and Stir Crazy, they team up again here with similarly successful results. Say what you want about the movie itself, but their on-screen chemistry and banter are above any criticism. Like the best comedy teams from Laurel and Hardy to The Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, chemistry is key above it all. They make it look easy scene-in and scene-out, raising the sometimes forced story above its average roots. No matter how goofy or downright stupid the story is, it's fun to watch this duo do their thing.

Simply put, Pryor and Wilder commit to the gimmick, a blind man and a deaf man forced to work together. It works because it is simple. Pryor's Wally can't see, liking to pretend he can. Wilder's Dave can't hear, but he's an expert at lip-reading (except for some tough sound-alikes). There are too many great little set pieces and running jokes to even mention, but here's a few. Drinking at a bar, they get into a fistfight, the blind man punching while the deaf man calls out where to punch as if it was a clock. My favorite has the duo arrested and taking mug shots. Dave can't see the photographer's face (so he can't hear her), requiring Wally to tell him what to do, but he can't see that Dave isn't in the right position. Watch it HERE. Just more proof you don't need something big and obvious and over the top to be funny. Sometimes it's the littlest things that produce the biggest laughs. I don't want to spoil too many of the best bits, but know this. It's genuinely funny. I laughed out loud throughout, and hopefully you will too.

You don't really need too much else in the cast department, but there's some other parts worth mentioning. The beautiful Joan Severance plays Eve, the real killer who's working with her partner, Kirgo, played by Kevin Spacey sporting a well-manicured pencil mustache and a British accent. Both of them are working for a mysterious man, Sutherland (Anthony Zerbe), who has a twist/surprise of his own in the final act. Alan North and Louis Giambalvo play two NYC detectives forced to deal with our blind/deaf duo and progressively losing it while Kirsten Childs plays Wally's sister, Adele, brought into the craziness.

Downright dumb at times with plenty of laughs. You wouldn't expect anything else from a comedy starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. Turn off your brain for a couple hours and sit back and enjoy the laughs.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989): ***/****

Outbreak

Released way back in 2011, Steven Soderbergh's Contagion was one of the best movies I saw in 2012. A seemingly unstoppable virus is tearing its way across the world. Can it be stopped? Smart, well-written, well-acted and stylish, it was a great movie. Released 16 years earlier, 1995's Outbreak deals with a very similar story and formula. Where does it stand in comparison?

A longtime disease specialist/virologist working for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USARMIID), Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman) and his team have been sent to Zaire to deal with a new disease that wiped out an entire village. What they find is terrifying, a virus that replicates quickly, claiming victims within a 24-hour period. Daniels' crew manages to contain the disease within the village, taking samples and clearing out before the disease can spread. Just days later though, a patient in a hospital in Boston has the symptoms similar to the disease. Then there's another in California, and then a whole town. How did the disease spread so quickly? Can it be stopped before it wipes out thousands and maybe millions? Daniels and his team go to work, but there may be more at work within the government than they know trying to stop them.

From director Wolfgang Petersen, 'Outbreak' is a good example of a modern disaster film that doesn't have to resort to gimmicks to be good. When disaster films were at their most popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they became cliched quickly, trying to one-up each other one after another. That's not really an issue here, a pretty smart script laying out a situation that could really happen. Viruses and diseases are constantly evolving. Can the medical field and the government stay ahead of those evolutions? 'Outbreak' blends that intelligent premise with an all-star cast and lets things take off. For the most part, I liked it....for awhile. That's for a little later though. For now, here's some positives.

In much the same way I enjoyed Contagion, 'Outbreak' is at its best in dealing with the social implications involved here. We see how the USARMIID and the CDC respond, trying to react as quickly as possible. We see the government planning ahead for all possible contingency plans, however dark they may be. Petersen's got an eye for it, covering a ton of ideas and scenarios in relatively quick fashion. While there's a lot of characters and situations, it doesn't feel rushed. The disease spreads quickly, the virus jumping and developing quickly. It's all cut together at a lightning-pace, bouncing among all the different affected parties. Things take a turn for the dark when a California town is a breakout point, patients piling up at an alarming rate. The USARMIID, CDC, military and government descend on the town, other advances being made to track down the source. How did this disease spread? Those are the coolest moments, a frightening premise to think about in our current world.

Now for that all-star cast!!! It's interesting watching Dustin Hoffman do just about anything on-screen, and he's a great lead here. Unfortunately some of his character background is dealing with his recently divorced wife, Robby (Rene Russo), who's taken a job at the CDC. Oh, divorce drama! Still, Hoffman and Russo have a good chemistry. Rounding out Daniels' team are Kevin Spacey as Casey, the smart-ass, highly intelligent assistant who's worked for years with Daniels, and Cuba Gooding Jr. as Salt, a new recruit with an army and medical background but no field experience. Representing the government/military higher-ups, Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland play highly-ranked officers who know more than they're letting on (courtesy of a 1967 flashback to open the film we see). Also look for Patrick Dempsey as an unknowing spreader of the disease, a cool, quick and essential subplot to the story.

And there it is. A good, creepy, entertaining story that could have been based in some sort of reality. And then there's the last 45 minutes. Hoffman's Daniels becomes a superhero, Gooding Jr. his intrepid sidekick, the duo traveling all over California, Sutherland's evil general in hot pursuit, and all against the clock. There's helicopter chases, a trap for a cute, disease-ridden monkey, an evil general obsessed with something, taking over a TV news broadcast, a helicopter with an endless supply of fuel, and a big old shift in tone that goes from serious and dramatic to goofy and campy. The movie is still good, but the last third is pretty rough. We're not sure who makes it, and it all is resolved rather quickly in a flash. Could have been great in the end, but it's okay instead.

Outbreak (1995): ** 1/2 /****

Glengarry Glen Ross

Where do you stand on cursing/swearing in movies? Do you blush if someone drops an F-bomb? Do you laugh when profanity is used as a noun, verb, adjective, even a preposition? Well, let's say this. If you're easily offended by swearing -- and I mean a lot of swearing -- then 1992 Glengarry Glen Ross may not be your type of movie.

At a small real estate agency in Chicago, the four-man salesmen staff is about to get a little shock. They're called in one night for a special meeting, a representative from their big boss arriving with a message. That rep, Blake (Alec Baldwin), delivers a simple ultimatum. The salesmen have exactly one week to prove themselves, selling as many units as humanly possible. At the end of the week, the one in the lead will be awarded a car, the second will receive a set of steak knives, and the other two? They'll be looking for work. Doesn't get any simpler than that, does it? Already working on a day-to-day basis with questionable leads to follow and a tough sell, this group has their work cut out for them. Let the hijinks begin.

This is a movie that sat in my Netflix queue for quite awhile. The cast was ridiculously talented, the story certainly interesting, and the reviews were almost uniformly glowing. Well, I caught up with it, and I can honestly say it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. That's not a negative, just a surprise on my end. I had a picture of high-end real estate, an agency in downtown Chicago dealing with huge deals of millions of dollars and gazillionaires. What is it? A far smaller, low-end agency with a cramped, cluttered office where the salesmen use all sorts of underhanded, duplicitous means to finish off a sale. These four salesmen are truly desperate, knowing their jobs and livelihood depend on one week of being able to do their jobs. Talk about pressure.

From director James Foley, 'Ross' is based off a play from David Mamet (who also wrote the screenplay). It clocks in at 100 minutes and generally has the style and feel of a stage-based play. The story takes place over a span of maybe 12, 18 hours and is based in only two locations, the real estate office and the Chinese restaurant across the street where the salesmen go for a bite to eat and get a drink. The rhythm develops like a play, the cast getting a chance to show their stuff in extended scenes of dialogue, setting things up and then letting it all develop. This is a movie about the dialogue, no doubt about it, Mamet's script a gem. The dialogue is fast and furious, the talented cast delivering it in almost machine gun succession, rapid fire that never slows down. 'Ross' isn't a movie about the effects or the style. It's about the acting, the chemistry, the script and the dialogue. Straightforward in its objectives, it's the better for it.

How about that for a slow burn? I haven't even mentioned the cast beyond Baldwin's one-scene, scene-stealing appearance. Haha take that! Foley is working with quite the cast in terms of pure acting power. The real estate salesmen include Ricky Roma (Al Pacino), the fiery, criminally smooth operator and frontrunner for the award for best salesmen, Shelley Levene (Jack Lemmon), the oldest salesmen in the group and maybe the most desperate because of a recent cold streak in sales, George Aaronow (Alan Arkin), the tag-along of sorts, worried about the challenge but letting everyone else lead the way in opinions, and Dave Moss (Ed Harris), the most heated and the one maybe most willing to do something desperate for the job. As the circus master of this crew, Kevin Spacey bides his time as Williamson, their boss who tries to keep them in check while taking an almost constant barrage of criticism from his employees. Also look for Jonathan Pryce as a possible customer working with Roma who has a serious issue with a sale.

Each character gets his chance to shine, none of them disappointing. I was most impressed with Pacino and Lemmon, but that's like saying which pizza is the best. They're all really good, but some are just slightly better. The dialogue crackles from the get-go and never slows down. It can be uncomfortable at times, this crew just ripping each other apart for any number of reasons, from lack of sales to botching a call. Baldwin's cameo gets things going at a 100 miles per hour, demanding that these salesmen 'Always be closing.' It never really slows down. The dialogue is always going, but the camera just follows the conversational acting, letting the conversations and arguments and fights breathe and develop on their own. The movie is 100 minutes long, but it flies by.

I really liked where this one went about the halfway point. You think you know where it's going, and it pulls the rug out from under you. The ending especially caught me by surprise. Oh, and random pop culture tidbit, Lemmon's excellent performance as aging Shelley Levene was quite the inspiration for Gil Gunderson, the disheveled salesmen on The Simpsons.

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992): ***/****

Moon

It hovers about Earth like a sea waiting to be fished. A natural satellite of planet Earth, the Moon is a natural backdrop for science fiction films. It seems to be where something horrific makes its last stop before assaulting Earth. In others, something has been hiding for hundreds of years on the Moon dormant, just waiting to strike. Then there's 2009's Moon, maybe the best of them all, a great science fiction film.

Working for Lunar Industries, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) works on the moon. He's nearing the end of a three-year contract at an elaborately-built base that extracts a form of helium -- a pure energy -- from the Moon, harvests it and sends it back to Earth. His only companion is GERTY (voice of Kevin Spacey), a computerized artificial intelligence with who he communicates and works. As he nears the end of his three-year tour of duty as a completely isolated individual, Sam is not surprisingly psyched to get home and see his wife and child who he's never seen. But just a few weeks removed from his final days, Sam starts to see weird things, notice weirder things around the base and all around it. What's going on? Has the isolation begun to tear his brain apart, or is there something else going on?

From first-time director Duncan Jones, I loved this movie. Loved it. Working with fellow screenwriter Nathan Parker, Jones has created a homage to his favorite sci-fi flicks of his youth -- 2001, Solaris, Silent Running, THX 1138 among others -- while also making an expertly written, well-told story that is able to stand on its own. Jones even admitted in interviews that he was trying to make a film that in terms of visual, tone and style was reminiscent of the late 1970s and early 1980s. I loved the look of the film with the eerily white passages of the Moon base to the seemingly dead, empty miles surrounding it on all sides. There is a calmness and eerie quality in general that makes the film special. It isn't aggressive or full of shock value. It wants to tell a story, an ultra-personal one, with some good twists and a great electronic, trance-like score from composer Clint Mansell.

I was intrigued reading the plot synopsis about Jones' film when I stumbled across it via Netflix. It was mysterious without being overtly so. It was vague, but in a way that drew me in instead of driving me away with its "cleverness." I was worried then about 40 minutes into a 97-minute film when a rather major twist is revealed. It takes its time developing itself, explaining itself, and momentarily, I struggled to keep up. All I can say is this; stick with it. It is completely worth it. It keeps unraveling and revealing more, improving with each additional layer added. I'll usually post spoiler alerts and just warn readers not to read if they want any secrets blown up, but I don't feel like I can do that here, even a slight reveal. The success of the movie -- and your enjoyment -- will no doubt come from how much you embrace the twist. It is smart, original, and the pay-off is incredible in a way I didn't see coming. I loved its originality, and it's more than just an interesting idea. It's executed well.

With a very limited cast, the movie's success rides almost exclusively on the shoulders of Sam Rockwell. No concern there because he hits a home run with his performance. Rockwell is one of my favorite actors currently working in Hollywood (I wish he'd do more roles!!!), and he shows why here. Playing astronaut of sorts Sam Bell, Rockwell is given a chance to show a variety of different emotions and feelings within one part. He questions if he's losing his mind or is he as sane as ever? I loved that variety that Rockwell offers with the part, especially with the twist revealed about halfway through the movie. As his companion, Spacey is brilliant casting as GERTY, the artificial intelligence "mind" in the vein of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. His calm, cool and subtly played voice feels like a set-up as GERTY. What's this artificial intelligence up to? I loved the visual there too, an interface moving via the ceiling with a small panel featuring a 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' face as the face of Sam's interaction. It smiles, it frowns, it looks confused. It's a great dynamic back and forth.

This is a movie that depends on Rockwell and Spacey to carry the film, a task the duo does effortlessly. There are a few small supporting parts that round out the cast, starting with Dominique McElligott as Tess, Sam's wife back home waiting to see her husband again. Kaya Scodelario has a bit part as Eve, Sam's grown-up daughter (he thinks) he starts to see in odd hallucinations. Benedict Wong and Matt Berry plays Lunar executives communicating via transmission about the success of Sam's tour.

I can't say enough about this movie. Science fiction films so often resort to cheap scares or 'Gotcha!' moments to be effective, but Jones' film avoids all those pratfalls. It is at times unsettling to watch, the questions without answers, the worry of the unknown and what awaits Sam at the end of his worries. 'Moon' develops perfectly, finding its groove quickly and racing to the finish once it is all laid out. I loved this movie, and I'm just sorry it took this long to get on my radar.

Moon (2009): ****/****

21

We all dream of at least a little bit, right? Getting on a filthy, unexplainable winning streak at gambling -- any gambling -- where the money just keeps rolling in. Okay, I've thought about it a little. I've only been to a casino once and was up a few bucks for about eight minutes before I busted out. Now, for individuals smarter than me, apparently there are ways to....increase your odds of winning? Based on a true story, we get 2008's 21.

For as long as he can remember, M.I.T. student Ben Caldwell (Jim Sturgess) has wanted nothing more than going to Harvard Medical School to study to become a doctor. There's a problem of course. He has absolutely no money, especially for the six-figure tuition, and his single mom can only offer so much help. Ben is a brilliant student, and he's caught the eye of one of his professors, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), who has an offer that will change everything. Rosa has organized and runs a small five-person team of similarly skilled students. Their talent? They count cards and rake in the money. Ben is instantly skeptical, but with no other alternative he joins Rosa's team and immediately shows a skill for counting cards that produces winnings, lots of winnings. He's good, very good, but there is always the threat of being caught, and one experienced casino security guard, Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), is suspicious of Ben's impressive winning streak.

From director Robert Luketic, this 2008 thriller is based on a true story that produced the book Bringing Down the House. The book is a mix of fiction and non-fiction, but here's the gist; a handful of very smart people did some stupid stuff to get money by something that isn't technically illegal in counting cards. The movie itself is pretty decent. Wouldn't it be great to take a casino down a couple notches? Oh, and you get to net some generous amounts of money in the process? Yes, please. It's a very stylish movie with several montages used to show Ben learning the trade, putting them into play, and the necessary partying in Vegas montage with boozing, dancing, going to strip clubs, all that good stuff. Mix in a solid soundtrack with quite a variety of artists and songs, and we're off to a good start.

As a 30-year old playing an M.I.T. student in his early 20s, Sturgess represents himself well as Ben Caldwell, a pretty smart kid who makes some pretty dumb decisions. There's something sympathetic about the character even if it's telegraphed early on that at some point he will mess up, and he will mess up in a big way. Oh, spoiler alert? Eh, my bad. Joining Sturgess on Rosa's team are Jill (Kate Bosworth), the necessary unattainable girl who Ben can never have (or can he?), Choi (Aaron Yoo), the necessary kooky Asian student with the crazy hair, Kianna (Liza Lapira), the necessary quiet and worrying student, and Fisher (Jacob Pitts), the necessary spurned kid who resents how good Ben is at what he used to be the best at. Sturgess is the best of the bunch, but for the most part the group comes across more as a big caricature than actual characters.

The star power comes from two supporting parts that are nonetheless key to the story. Kevin Spacey does what he does best, playing a really nice guy who isn't really a nice guy. His Micky Rosa is friendly, charming and an all-around a-hole when things go poorly. You know just by his casting that at some point Ben and his fellow card-counters will eventually screw up because Spacey has to blow up and turn on them in dramatic fashion. See it coming miles away? Yes, but it's still fun to watch. The same for Fishburne as Cole Williams, veteran security official for the casinos. With partner Jack McGee, Cole is getting squeezed out by a facial recognition software that is replacing actual human security. It's a pretty one-note performance, but Fishburne handles it well. He's a good counter to Ben and the team, if not a bad guy because well.....because it's obvious Spacey will be the bad guy. Parts the duo could probably do in their sleep, but fun to watch.

While I liked the movie, I can admit I have no idea what any of the card counting meant or how it was done. I was instantly confused the second any of it is even remotely explained and/or discussed. With a movie that runs a little over two hours at 123 minutes, it's safe to say I liked the first hour significantly more than the second. When things go poorly, it gets a little too After School Special for me. Oh, no, Ben's friends (Sam Golzari and funny Josh Gad) are upset that he's not the same Ben they know? Oh, no, Jill might not like him as much as he likes her? There's a good twist in the last 15 minutes that I didn't see coming which does save some enjoyment from some of the monotony toward the end. Still, I liked it just enough to give it a mild recommendation.

21 (2008): ** 1/2 /****

Horrible Bosses

For the lucky ones among us, work ain't so bad. It's tolerable and even enjoyable at times. But who at some point in their adult life hasn't had one of those God awful, truly horrific bosses that make you want to rip your own ears off? If you don't qualify there, congratulations to you. Turning that fantasy of killing your boss into a feature length comedy -- this past summer's Horrible Bosses -- has never been so funny.

Friends since high school, Dale (Charlie Day), Nick (Jason Bateman) and Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) are all in some rather difficult situations at work in one way or another. With the economy in the tank though, they can't up and quit their jobs, much less tell their bosses off like they'd rather do. Drinking together one night, the three joke about killing their bosses, solving each others' problem with three nice, little murders. Okay, maybe it isn't a joke as all three decide this is their best alternative. With some help from a streetwise ex-con, Motherf**ker Jones (Jamie Foxx), who provides some "murder advice," the three friends go about planning some murders.

There's no way a comedic Strangers on a Train should work, but wouldn't you know it? It does. Murdering your boss(es) doesn't exactly sound like a bucket of laughs, but director Seth Gordon handles it in the right fashion. It isn't a drama with some comedic moments or even a dark comedy with some sinister laughs. This is down and out stupid funny movie with no pretensions of being anything else. Three long-time friends with no criminal background/experience in any way murdering their bosses? Bumbling their way through some 'recon' and 'intel'? The results are surprisingly hilarious with a very funny script from three different screenwriters (I'm too lazy to type and link all three names. Besides, do you care?)

Now onto the bosses, three roles that the actors are clearly having some fun with. The biggest part goes to Kevin Spacey as Harken, Bateman's manipulative tool of a boss with an ego the size of a blimp. Nobody does pretentious and smarmy like Spacey, having a ball playing a ridiculous over the cop comedic part. Jennifer Aniston gets to sex it up as Dale's boss, Dr. Julia, a dentist who takes every opportunity to sexually harass a recently engaged Dale. It doesn't seem so bad as his friends say. Aniston plays against type in a raunchier role than usual, and yeah, she looks phenomenal. Just saying.... And last there's an unrecognizable Colin Farrell as Pellitt, Kurt's cocaine-snorting freak of a boss. He's underused, but what's there is very funny. 

As a long-time fan of FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I love Charlie Day's work as Charlie Kelly, the illiterate, generally clueless and all-around goof who can't mange to do anything right. Playing Dale here, he's by far the funniest of the three friends. Goofy at times to the point of crazy, Day shows that same talent he has in Sunny, if a little lighter and not as sinister. The same for Sudeikis who seems destined for bigger and better things than Saturday Night Live. The only misfire is Bateman who seems to be sleepwalking at times. He has some funny lines -- his exchange about street racing with a Prius is classic -- but he doesn't look too interested.

Along with Foxx in a scene-stealing part as MotherF'er Jones, the cast features a couple other small but worthwhile parts. Look for Donald Sutherland, Bob Newhart, Julie Bowen, comedian Ron White, and Ioan Gruffudd in small but extremely effective bit parts.

Something is missing from all the zaniness that I can't quite put my finger on. The movie is funny with some great one-liners coming out of a ridiculously preposterous predicament, but is it too goofy at times? They never seem to really take serious what's going on. Eh, maybe they don't need to. It's funny.

Horrible Bosses <---trailer (2011): ***/****

The Men Who Stare at Goats

A movie that starts with a title card stating "More of this is true than you would believe" sends alarms off in my head, especially when it's a comedy.  To me it seems like a warning that what you are about to see is ridiculous, pretty stupid, and a cop out that if it does feel stupid, well too bad because it happened.  But because of the talent involved in 2009's The Men Who Stare at Goats I was willing to look past any issues I might have had going in. 

Certain movies need very little to pull viewers in.  It can be a star, the story, the director, anything really that catches someone's eye.  For me it was the scene in the trailer where Clooney literally stares a goat to death.  The look on his face, the music, the ridiculously awesome mustache, how could this not be a funny movie?  And really, any dark, quirky comedy in the veins of a Cohen brothers movie certainly has an appeal.  'Goats' has all that darkness, all that quirkiness you would expect.  But at a certain point in this recent comedy, it just stops being funny.  Go figure.

Working for a paper in Ann Arbor, Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) interviews a soldier who claims to be a member of a top secret Army mission from the 1980s that turned soldiers into psychic soldiers. Bob thinks the man is crazy, and moves on, only to have his wife leave him and send him into a tailspin.  He heads to Kuwait to prove he isn't a coward and there runs into Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a man also associated with this bizarre, top-secret mission that turned soldiers into as Lyn puts it 'Jedi warriors.'  Bob doesn't know what to make of this news but tags along with Lyn in hopes of trying to figure it all out.  Could it really happen though? Could Lyn be a psychic soldier, a Jedi warrior?

What works so well in answering that question is that director Grant Heslov chooses not to answer the question.  Are all these soldiers absolutely nuts, just off the wall crazy?  Or is there the slimmest chance that maybe, just maybe, it's all real?  The humor here is a good mix of physical comedy -- Stephen Lang as an Army general running at a wall believing he'll run through it only to smash into it -- and the more subtle variety, like Clooney trying to convince McGregor that his hypnosis will help them when really he's physically attacking someone.  There are some laugh out loud moments and early on, I was loving this movie.

There is a somewhat disjointed feel to the comedy because there's almost 3 different segments to the movie.  One, Bob and Lyn meeting and driving across Kuwait and Iraq running into all sorts of problems.  Some really funny moments there.  Two, Lyn's flashbacks of the process to become a Jedi Warrior in a school run by Colonel Bill Django, played by Jeff Bridges as a hippie, Army version of the Dude. And third, there's the last half hour as past and present collide in the middle of the Iraqi desert in a finale that just doesn't work and completely derails the movie.  With some off the wall humor, a ridiculous conclusion seems almost necessary, but the ending just doesn't work here.  It's trying too hard to be funny and comes up empty.

On the other hand, if a feature length movie of Bridges' Col. Django and his teaching techniques was ever made, count me in.  A Vietnam vet, Django requests time to study alternative forms of combat and ends up becoming a hippie who believes he can get soldiers to use their minds and powers to prevent war, not fight war.  Watching Bridges teach his students his tactics and techniques are definitely the high points of the movie.  Throw in Kevin Spacey as an a-hole student trying to one-up everyone around him, and you've got a good mix.  Clooney is always good doing comedy because he commits himself so far into the material, and McGregor is a good straight man the whole.  He's basically the viewer, questioning 'Really? This is serious?'

A good half-comedy if that makes any sense.  Here's my thinking; stop watching the movie after Bob and Lyn drive over an IED in the middle of the desert.  It goes downhill from there fast.  Now trying to sum it all up, I'm realizing how stupid this movie really was.  'Goats' is a very stupid movie with moments of brilliance; Clooney 'cloud bursting,' Django's school, and basically anything with Stephen Lang.  Know what you're getting into watching this movie, and maybe you'll like it more than I did.

The Men Who Stare at Goats <----trailer (2009): **/**** 

L.A. Confidential

In its heyday, the film noir genre turned out more than its fair share of classic movies in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These were tough stories often shot in black and white with a typically cynical view of the world. Tough guy actors like Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan dotted these stories which appealed to audiences then and especially now over 60 year later. But as great as some of these movies were, they were limited by the times they were made in with censorship and production codes keeping a tight rein on these stories.

No such problem in 1997 when L.A. Confidential was released in theaters with a moderate success in theaters and almost complete critical acclaim. Director Curtis Hanson revisits much of what made film noir popular with this hard-bitten, rough-edged movie. Hanson uses Los Angeles extensively in location shooting, and much like 1974's Chinatown did, produces a feeling of what the city must have felt like in the past. With no censors holding him back, the story is blunt and straightforward, full of language and violence that never seems extreme and is almost always essential to the story. This one slipped by me since its release, but am I ever glad I caught up with it.

Based on a novel by James Ellroy, L.A. Confidential has a plot that is pretty near impossible explaining here without giving away many of the key twists and turns it takes. Anyways, here's the gist of it. It's 1953 Los Angeles where the LAPD is full of corruption and scandal with three very different cops stepping into the limelight. First, there's Ed Exley (Guy Pearce), a rising star on the force looking to make a name for himself the right way, the moral way. Second, there's Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), a veteran of the force and a bit of a celebrity for his work with 'Badge of Honor,' a thinly veiled Dragnet rip-off. Don't be confused though, Vincennes is a good cop, even if he may take some shortcuts in his detective work. And last, there's Bud White (Russell Crowe), a brutish homicide detective not above planting some evidence or beating a confession out of a suspect.

Not always working together, the three officers are all involved in one way or another with a massacre at a little diner where 5 people, including a former cop, were murdered, apparently by three young black men wielding shotguns. But as the trio soon figures out, everything is not so cut and dry as it seems. It's nice to see a deeply-layered story like this that requires the viewer to pay attention to each and every scene, every line of dialogue. Even paying close attention, the story is so convoluted and full of twists and turns that it can be hard to follow. Never fear though, the last 30 minutes wraps everything up nicely with an impressive body count too.

Movies with a big ensemble cast have always appealed to me, and this is one of the best. Pearce, Spacey and Crowe all bring something different to their parts, cops who are very different but also very similar. They go about things differently, but they want the same results. Joining them in the cast is Kim Basinger who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her part as Lynn Bracken, a high-price callgirl involved with Crowe's White and the case they're all working. Often more recognized for her good looks than her acting chops, Basinger delivers a strong performance as a woman who ends up as a pawn in a huge conspiracy. Rounding out the cast are James Cromwell as commissioner Dudley Smith, Danny DeVito as Sid Hudgens, a paparazzi before there was TMZ, and David Strathairn as Pierce Patchett, a millionaire working with the movies, cops, drug dealer and prosititutes.

Racking up Oscar nominations in 1997 like crazy, but only winning two -- stupid Titanic -- this is one of those movies that has it all from casting to cinematography to a great understated score from Jerry Goldsmith. It's a throwback to the movies of classic Hollywood, the Golden Age of movies, albeit with a lot more language, cursing and graphic violence. LA Confidential has a professional feeling hovering around it that too often movies are lacking. Can't recommend this one enough, although the final scene does have a bit of a cop-out. Small potatoes I guess in the bigger picture.

L.A. Confidential <----trailer (1997): ****/****