Hit and Run

Over the 1970s and 1980s, a sub-genre of flicks came along that audiences ate up. They weren't road movies in the typical sense, but instead on steroids a bit. Think of movies like Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run, The Getaway, Midnight Run and many others along with TV shows like The Dukes of Hazzard.. What if you combined all those movies? Then you'd get the oddly appealing, very entertaining 2012 flick Hit and Run.

Living in a quiet California town, Charles Bronson (Dax Shepard) has been dating his girlfriend, Annie (Kristen Bell), for almost a year. They've got a great thing going, impressive considering Annie knows Charlie is in the Witness Protection Program after testifying against several bank robbers he witnessed robbing a bank. There's a problem though. Annie has been offered her dream job in Los Angeles, and she doesn't want to leave Charlie behind. Knowing how much it means to her, he decides to go with to L.A., but ah, there are more layers to discover. Annie's ex, Gil (Michael Rosenbaum), suspects Charlie is up to something and starts to dig into his mysterious past. As they head for L.A., someone from Charlie's past (Bradley Cooper) is on their trail. What hasn't he been telling Annie?

I'll give credit where it's due. Dax Shepard has come a long way from being Ashton Kutcher's henchman on MTV's Punk'd in 2003. He's transitioned that supporting part on a prank show into a legitimate actor on film and television. That's not all. On top of his acting, Shepard also directed (with David Palmer), produced, and wrote the script for this flick with a retro, throwback feel to it. He shows a knack for doing all those things well, a solid directorial debut.

The biggest appeal is that retro/throwback feel to so many similar flicks from the 1970s and 1980s. Yes, there is a story -- however shallow and/or simplistic -- is a means to an end. It's nothing more than to get the story going toward a never-ending, fast paced series of car chases with lots of badass cards and funny, cool one-liners. I find that very appealing. 'Hit' isn't trying to rewrite the formula or carve out a niche for itself as a new end-all, be-all flick. It's goal is simple. It wants to entertain the hell out of you, and for me, it succeeds in a big way. Some of the humor can be pretty low-brow while other times it's surprisingly smart, but who am I kidding? You don't go into a movie like this expecting to see anything groundbreaking. Just sit back and enjoy the very cool, very fast cars gunning across the country after you.

Maybe a little surprising for me was that the story is actually pretty good here. A real-life couple outside of acting, Shepard and Bell have a very natural, easy-going chemistry with each other. Maybe they're just being themselves, but they're a believable enough couple. Their couple/relationship story works because of the general craziness of Shepard's Charlie's past. (Sidenote: He chose Charles Bronson as his Witness Protection name because his real name, 'Yul Perrkins,' wasn't tough enough). I suppose this is a semi-SPOILER, but Charlie/Yul didn't just testify in a bank robbing case....he turned on his former bank robbing accomplices (including Cooper). Charlie and Annie are forced to figure out how important they are to each other, and oh yeah, some bank robbing thugs with guns are after them. It's kinda goofy, kinda sweet, and always funny.

Pretty much across the board, the casting here is....shall I say oddly appealing? Cooper shows off his versatility as the Hurley-wearing, dreadlock-toting bank robber Alex Dmitri in a surprisingly funny part. Joy Bryant and Ryan Hansen play Neve and Alan, two other members of Alex's crew. Completely out of left field, the usually shrill, annoying Tom Arnold is a scene-stealer in a good way as Randy, a U.S. Marshal with Witness Protection assigned to watch over Charlie. His general clumsiness and nerves provides some good laughs as well as his ability with a pistol. There's also a funny sub-plot with Gil's gay brother (Jess Rowland),  a cop and his partner (Carly Hatter). Also look for Beau Bridges in a funny part as Charlie's Dad with Kristin Chenoweth, David Koechner, and Sean Hayes all making quick appearances. Even Jason Bateman makes a one-scene cameo.

No real point in analyzing this one too much. It's funny, entertaining and has a lot that certainly looks like they're having a hell of a lot of fun. I went in with low expectations for this one, but I liked it a lot. Surprisingly good flick with a lot of laughs.

Hit and Run (2012): ***/****

The Descendants

With a relatively small filmography to his name, director Alexander Payne has nonetheless carved a nice little niche out for himself in Hollywood. With movies like Election, About Schmidt, Sideways, he has specialized in small, personal and even intimate dramatic stories focused on character and relationships above all else. Not a bad thing, right? Especially when you think about all the explosion and nudity driven movies out there. What then about Payne's latest film, 2011's The Descendants?

A highly successful lawyer living in Hawaii, Matt King (George Clooney) is facing a difficult real estate decision that could bring his family millions of dollars as they sell off 25,000 acres of oceanfront land that's been in the family for over 100 years. That's just the start though. For most of a month, Matt has been trying to hold his family together after a boating accident put his wife into a coma. Now on life support, a decision on what to do with her living will looms. Matt is on the brink though, dealing with his daughters, troubled teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and younger Scottie (Amara Miller), while trying to juggle it all. A family frayed before the accident, more tension awaits.

While I liked this movie, I won't say I loved it, not by a long shot. What jumped out at me was that this was a prime example of the Best Picture nominations being watered down at the Academy Awards. Instead of five worthy films, 10 now get nominations. Was 'Descendants' really worth a nomination for one of the best films of 2011? It's good, but certainly not great. Yes, the drama feels real, the relationships among family and friends authentic without resorting to theatrics, the Hawaiian setting an interesting choice as a backdrop, but what else? I felt like I've seen this movie before and several times before. I came away disappointed, but I can still recommend it. I think. I might change my mind in a paragraph or so.

The same issue I had with the movie itself as an Oscar nominee is what I have with Clooney earning a Best Actor nomination. Clooney takes a bad rap at times for basically playing himself in all his movies, and to a point, I agree. This is a solid, worthwhile acting job, no doubt about that, but it feels like it's been done before. He's believable, likable, even sympathetic, but as an actor -- drama or comedy -- I've seen him do so much better. A real bright spot -- and fellow Oscar nominee -- is Woodley as his daughter, Alexandra, shipped away to an island boarding school of sports. She has news that could cripple her father, the family situation they're in bringing father and daughter closer than they ever were before. Miller too as Scottie (appropriately struggling with her mom's health situation) is a positive.

The rest of the cast is more hit or miss, part of that problem being chalked up to the script. Mary Birdsong and Rob Huebel are shrewish, shrill and mysterious as family friends who know Matt because they were friends with his wife first. Robert Forster is Matt's father-in-law, holding a grudge against Matt for not treating his daughter like she deserved. Like so many other friends and family though, he doesn't know everything, looking at his daughter in rose-tinted glasses. Nick Krause tries too hard to be a similarly troubled teen as Sid, Alexandra's friend, clueless, revealing, and very smart all at the same time. Beau Bridges has a small part as Hugh, Matt's cousin, while Matthew Lillard and Judy Greer play a married couple who steps into the King's family situation. Either trying too hard or not enough to make the characters unique and/or interesting, Forster and Greer end up standing out from the rest.

I don't know what to say. I was just disappointed in the end. At just under two hours, it feels much longer. The story bounces around far too much for my liking, focusing on scenes that could have been in the background while glossing over scenes that felt more important to me. That could be me though....there's a reason I'm writing movie reviews and not movie scripts. It's a uniformly good movie, but it isn't the great or even semi-great movie that it was made out to be. It feels like a rehash of other movies, never adding anything new to the equation. And that heavily Hawaiian-themed soundtrack gets old quickly. Quirky much? Real quick quirky too. Sorry to say I can't give this one a better rating.

The Descendants <----trailer (2011): **/****

Max Payne

Everything from books to songs to poetry to comic books have been transformed into feature films so why not video games?  Whole series like Mortal Kombat, Lara Croft, House of the Dead have been turned from a video/arcade game into successful (depending on the series) movie franchises.  One of the more popular video game series through the early 2000s was Max Payne, the story of a NYPD cop looking for revenge after the murder of his family.  It's a popular series that didn't translate well to theaters, both critically and in the box office, but here's the counter argument because I liked 2008's Max Payne.

Complaints range all over the place, and nothing is free of scrutiny here when it comes to diehard fans of the original game.  I never played any of the Payne series so I had no preconceived notions about what the movie version should be in terms of casting, characters, and storytelling.  I went in as a fan of star Mark Wahlberg and thought the supporting cast and the premise sounded interesting. Is it a great movie? Not at all.  It doesn't really add anything to an action genre that's seen just about everything.  It feels like a mix of several different movies, everything from The Matrix to Sin City and a ton more in between. So be forewarned, I know little to nothing about Max Payne and still liked it.

It's been several years since NYPD detective Max Payne (Wahlberg) came home to find his wife and baby son killed by three gangsters.  He's been relegated to Cold Case files and is hidden away in the archives of the police department.  At night though, Payne comes to life, walking the streets looking for clues as to the killer of his family and kicking some ass in the process.  Low-level crooks watch out, Max Payne is gunning for you.  His former partner (Donal Logue) stumbles onto a clue that could help Max out, but he's gunned down before he can tell him the actual news. Max is on the hunt now, and he doesn't care much what his badge represents by now.  With some help from a mafia-connected hit woman, Mona (Mila Kunis) also looking for revenge, Max follows the lone clue he has available to him and walks into something bigger than he had planned on.

I'm always surprised when I see a movie that I enjoyed only to read reviews and message boards that spew just posts and posts of hatred for the film version of Max Payne.  It starts with Wahlberg who it seems moviegoers either love or hate.  I like him, and while I can see the criticism that he always plays variations of himself, it doesn't bother me.  His Max is that prototypical man seeking vengeance, and that's a hard character to mess up.  He's got the sympathy vote because who doesn't feel for a guy who saw his wife and infant son murdered? His Max is a man of few words, and at times (like a few other Wahlberg parts I can think of) he reminds me of Steve McQueen in his loner, antisocial anti-hero parts, especially in The Getaway as Doc McCoy.  Wahlberg is a more than capable actor, and he can handle all sorts of action scenes.  Was he the best choice to play Max? I don't know, but from someone with no background in the game or character, the casting worked for me.

In terms of style, visually this movie looks a lot like Sin City.  The whole story takes place almost completely at night so visually we're talking a modern film noir with shadows and darkness, and a little CGI thrown in for good measure and tone-setting.  It's New York City, but it has a feel of a darker, more sinister city, like Gotham before Batman did his thing.  Sometimes the style comes at the expense of the story, but most action movies lean in that direction.  With the story, there are elements of the video game thrown in, and even a little comic book style too.  Nothing is particularly new or innovative, but it's a well-made, good looking action movie and stays well within a comfort zone throughout.

With a movie that in its unrated director's cut clocks in at 103 minutes, there are certain sacrifices made.  The story is disjointed at times with too many elements bouncing around.  In an investigation -- rogue cop or not -- we're going to meet a lot of characters, but there's just too many here.  Kunis continues to show she's capable of being in action movies (check out Book of Eli too), although it's weird hearing Meg Griffin's voice so clearly at times.  She's that perfect female co-star, beautiful and badass, especially late when she's covering Max's back with a machine gun.  The rest of the cast includes rapper Ludacris again proving he's got some work to do in the acting department, Logue in a small part as Max's former partner, Beau Bridges as an old family friend, Chris O'Donnell as a former co-worker of Max's wife, an underused Olga Kurylenko as Kunis' sister, and Amaury Nolasco as Lupino, a super-soldier who can't be stopped.

So if all else, it's a video game movie, and there's plenty of quality action...right? Finally something I think most viewers can agree on.  Criticize just about anything else you want from this flick, but I think the action sequences are pretty untouchable.  Two shootouts stand out, one a running firefight in a crowded office with some nice use of slow-motion, and two, the finale as Max goes gunning for the man who pulls all the strings and was responsible for the death of his wife.  All in all, pleasantly surprised with this one.  I can't speak for anyone else, but it's a solid action flick with a good cast.

Max Payne <---trailer (2008): ***/****