Unfinished Business

I'm a big Vince Vaughn fan. I think his part in Wedding Crashers is criminally perfect, one of the best comedic performances I can think of, well, ever. His selections since that infamous 2005 comedy have been pretty hit or miss, including most recently his much-maligned part in HBO's second season of True Detective. But while the source material isn't always good, I typically like Vaughn. So with some nerves, I dove into 2015's Unfinished Business, a comedy that got lousy reviews and did awful in the box office. And away we go!

Dan Trunkman (Vaughn) is at a crossroads in his career. Told he will be getting a 5 percent commission decrease at work on business deals, Dan decides to up and quit, vowing to start his own company in the same field from the ground up. Two employees follow him out the door, Timothy McWinters (Tom Wilkinson), a longtime employee in his late 60's who's let go because he's too old, and Mike Pancake (Dave Franco), a young interviewee who actually wasn't employed but just interviewed for a position. Dan swears he'll get something going....that never really happens. Not right away at least as a year later, Dan is still trying to close his first business deal, a prominent one hanging in the air just waiting to get the handshake done. The problem? His former employer is similarly tracking the same deal, and the only way to get it done is for Dan, Tim and Mike to head to Berlin to wrap things up. Let the international hijinks begin.

Well....the trailer looked pretty funny. That's good, right? 'Unfinished' earned an impressive 11% at Rotten Tomatoes and barely cracked $10 million at the box office. I thought the premise sounded funny, the cast was pretty talented and was looking for some good laughs, so not a whole lot of demands. From director Ken Scott and writer Steve Conrad, 'Unfinished' just doesn't have enough laughs. The story is all over the place, trying to be a hard R-rated comedy while also mixing in some family drama that is dead on arrival. Pick one or the other and stick with it. If you pick wrong, so be it but at least you're not trying to appeal to all sides. It rarely ends well going with both options, and even at just 91 minutes, this comedy gets a tad sluggish along the way.

There are haters and/or doubters out there, but I love Vince Vaughn. He's at his best dealing out lightning-quick jabs, almost always delivered in a subtle, underplayed fashion that leaves you burned later because that insult was so damn good. Playing father and businessman Dan, Vaughn -- like the script -- is kind of trapped in no man's land. His character just seems irritated a lot, mostly because everyone around him is an idiot. He gets his usual rants and ravings in and has a good running bit about being part of a hotel art display, but too often he's left to play the straight man to the antics and shenanigans all around him. His selections in films have left something to desire over the last 10 years, but when given the opportunity, he shows he can still kill it with an impeccable line delivery. I just wish there had been more of that.

As if his co-workers weren't bad enough (more on that to come), Vaughn's character and the movie across the board is undone by the family drama inserted into a comedy that preached an R-rating and looked to be raunchy, nasty and dirty. No such luck, or not enough, or no balance among it all. You choose. There's his loving wife (June Diane Raphael), his bullied, overweight son (Britton Sear) and his daughter (Ella Anderson) who stands up for her older brother. It is a plot line with no life, no energy and would seem more appropriate for a Full House episode.

So Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco as sidekicks...yeah, that sounds good. But that damn script again has its way. Franco delivers one of the most uncomfortable parts I've ever seen, his Mike Pancake (Yes, that's his name and the joke is beaten to death) a pretty slow young man who's innocent, naive, looking to get laid and, well, seemingly mentally challenged but all at the expense of one joke after another. It is painful. PAINFUL. Wilkinson is a pro but his character is similarly poorly-written, an older, married man who's looking to get a divorce and have some crazy European sex too as long as he's got the chance. So....yeah, that's not good. In tiny snippets, the trio does have good chemistry but they get buried under a sea of repetitive jokes that are short on actual laughs.

Rounding out the cast but given little to do beyond being cliched cardboard cutouts, look for Sienna Miller, James Marsden and Nick Frost as assorted other characters that do stuff.

Just a big disappointment overall. There was some potential for a halfway decent comedy, but that never really comes around. Not enough laughs and too many dumb twists and awkwardly forced family issues to be an enjoyable comedy.

Unfinished Business (2015): * 1/2 /****

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Oh, how time flies. I remember 2004 like it was yesterday, me a young college student enjoying everything about 2004's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. One of the most quotable movies ever and one of my all-time favorite comedies in general, it's hard to believe it has been almost 10 years since the comedy's initial release. Rewatching it recently in preparation for its sequel (review coming), I had to go back and revisit it, see if it still holds up. Short answer? Yes.

It's the mid 1970s and no one in San Diego is a bigger star than Channel 4 anchorman Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell). An icon in the city and must-watch every time he's on the news, Ron is riding high, his news team, sportscaster Champ Kind (David Koechner), field reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) ever at his side. The television ratings are high, the city loves them, and it seems no one can take them down. Well, that could change. Channel 4 has hired a new field reporter, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), who would like nothing more than to become the first female news anchor. Ron and the News Team are going to do their best to make sure she doesn't get to achieve her dream, but there's a catch. Ron really likes Veronica and Veronica really likes Ron. Uh-oh, I sense some late 1970s hijinks on the way.

I saw Anchorman in theaters upon its initial release and loved it. L-O-V-E-D it. From director Adam McKay, co-writing the script with good friend Ferrell, Anchorman is either loved or hated among viewers. You don't hear a lot of folks who came away just liking the movie, mildly enjoying it. It's pretty obvious why. The humor -- to say the least -- is the definition of random, pretty off the wall and while not filthy, low-brow certainly comes to mind. I tend to think there's a brilliance to the randomness here (and in the sequel), the twisted minds of Ferrell and McKay finding that perfect outlet to let out that craziness. A review listing the countless memorable scenes would be incredibly easy because there is one laugh out loud scene after another. It deserves its status as one of the best comedies ever, not to mention a status as one of the most quotable movies ever from Brick's "I love lamp" to Ron's explanation of the origin of the name San Diego and a whole lot of other lines in between.

The movie's epic success (in my eyes) begins and ends with Mr. Ferrell as legendary newsman Ron Burgundy. Thanks to Elf and Old School, Ferrell was a rising star in the comedy world making the jump from SNL to movies, but for me, this was the movie that put him on the A-list map officially and for good. Maybe you love the character, maybe you hate him, but Ferrell makes Ron Burgundy a truly memorable character. He's uber self-confident, a ladies man, a master player of jazz flute, a hard-drinker who favors scotch, epically proud of his perfectly coiffed hair, loves his little dog, Baxter, and knows more than anything else that he was born to READ THE NEWS! There's a certain idiotic charm to Burgundy, a man who is all sorts of confident, but he's really dumb too. That's the beauty of the character, the biggest doofus of all to lead a cast full of doofus characters. A great, truly funny part for Will Ferrell.

There really isn't a weakness in the entire cast. Applegate holds her own in the Boys Club, her Veronica wanting to make a legitimate name for herself, not just because people like her. The Channel 4 News Team is perfect, especially Rudd as the epically smooth ladies man and field reporter Brian Fantana. Koechner and Carell too help hold the group together, four freakishly dissimilar folks who bond through their love of the news, partying and carousing. Also look for Fred Willard as Channel 4's producer, Chris Parnell as his nerdy assistant, Seth Rogen as a cameraman, and Danny Trejo as an angry bartender.

There are certain moments here that rise above that same old, same old comedy formula. On top of the countless lines worth quoting, there are certain set pieces that take this comedy to a special place. One of my favorites? Rudd's Fantana revealing his hidden musk/scent display to Ron, especially the illegal Sex Panther (it's got bits of real panther so you know it's good), is ridiculously funny. Ron trying to impress Veronica on their date is priceless, both sitting in his car overlooking San Diego, Ron citing all sorts of "history" about the city. How they finally got a take without laughing I'll never know. There is no doubt about the best scene though, Ron and the Channel 4 News Team engaging in a brutal street fight with rival news teams. The cameos are priceless including Vince Vaughn as hate-filled Wes Mantooth, second in the ratings, Luke Wilson (3rd ranked), Tim Robbins (PBS) and Ben Stiller (Spanish). Words don't describe how stupid this scene is, and that's why it works. It works because it's stupid, it knows it, and it embraces the stupidity. Also look for Jack Black in a quick cameo earlier.

Maybe more than any genre, comedies are subjective because senses of humor can be so all over the place. This is that special kind of bizarre humor, but it works. How could a movie narrated by legendary newscaster Bill Kurtis not be good at least a little bit? Enough talking, it's a classic. Brace yourself for the laughs and lots of them. Stay tuned tomorrow for a review of the Anchorman sequel.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004): ****/****

The Internship

With their 2005 hit Wedding Crashers, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson made one of the best comedies of the 2000s. They charged the comedic genre with an R-rating vein, made a boatload of money and put its two stars right on the map, making them more than bankable. The weird thing? Both actors have struggled to find the right roles in the years since. The solution? Pair them up again with 2013's The Internship.

Longtime salesmen with the ability to sell just about anything, Billy McMahon (Vaughn) and Nick Campbell (Wilson) have been friends for years going back to high school. With the economy changing though, they find themselves without a job when the company they work for shuts its doors. Scrambling for what to do next, Billy finds a solution, enrolling them in the internship program at Google. What they find at the program is something they're just not used to, waves of 20-somethings who are wrapped up in themselves, technology and their phones. Can they adjust in time? All the interns are assigned to teams, Billy and Nick joining a team led by a fellow outcast, Lyle (Josh Brener), and three other nerd types. Only one team in the whole internship program can win in the end, the team being offered full-time positions with Google. Can the salesmen duo figure out what they're doing in time?

I'm a big fan of 2005's Wedding Crashers. Who isn't really? Communists I say!!! The formula here is simple for director Shawn Levy, reunite Vaughn and Wilson, give them a remotely interesting reason to be back together, and....no, wait. That's it. 'Internship' is an excuse to pair these two pretty funny guys together and let the hijinks begin. It has its fair share of issues, but my biggest complaint was that it plays like a giant advertisement for Google. Oh, look how quirky and cool Google is! It has a nap/rest room! It's got bikes painted with Google's signature colors?!? We hear lots of conversations about Gmail, Google Maps, Google Wallet, Google Plus and on and on. The Google jumping off point is solid/interesting enough (who doesn't use the search engine in one way or another?), but it gets to be too much eventually.

Beyond the original idea of two smooth dudes crashing weddings, the popularity of 'Crashers' came from the perfect pairing of Vaughn and Wilson. Their chemistry was impeccable, perfect, and carried the movie. Does it translate to this PG-13 comedy eight years later? Yeah, most definitely. That kind of chemistry doesn't just go away. Vaughn co-wrote the script with Jared Stern, giving himself and Wilson plenty of chances to riff and improvise and do those crazy rants that work so well. Even when they push it a little too much -- LAUGH!!! THIS IS FUNNY!!! -- their chemistry in all their scenes carries the movie through a sometimes sluggish 119-minute running time. Also look for John Goodman as the duo's longtime boss, Will Ferrell as Nick's brother-in-law and possible boss at a mattress store, and Rob Riggle as a salesman at a retirement home. Both Goodman and Ferrell's parts were uncredited.

That chemistry only goes so far unfortunately. The script wants to say a lot, and in general, the messages are actually pretty spot-on. The differences in generations is obvious, the younger 20-somethings growing up with technology in every single aspect of their lives. The generation before them is aware of the technology but not ingrained with it. With the way the world's heading, it's clearly leaning toward the younger generation. Ha, didn't think you'd get this sort of analysis in a review of The Internship, did you?!? What the script is saying is that the answer is somewhere in the middle; the personal relationships, the talking/conversations of the 40-year olds mixed with the tech-savvy younger kids. Seems fair if you ask me, but getting that message across comes out a little heavy-handed.

How you ask? Billy and Nick have to teach them how to live! I actually like the message that our over-reliance on technology is slowly killing society, but do the 40-somethings have to actually teach us that? In their team, we meet Lyle, nerdy in every way, a Google employee who wants to date his dance teacher (Jessica Szohr, yes, Google has dance teachers), phone-obsessed Stuart (Dylan O'Brien), Neha (Tiya Sircar), wildly experimental but really a virgin, and home-schooled Yo-Yo (Tobit Raphael). There's also Rose Byrne as Wilson's crush (yeah, didn't see that coming) and Google supervisor, Aasif Mandvi as Mr. Chetty, the internship program leader, Graham (Max Minghella), the brutal British intern, and Josh Gad as Headphones, an intern who wants to be left alone....seemingly.

I did like the movie a little more in the second half, the first half dragging. There are just too many instances where the movie is seemingly begging for the audience to laugh. The interview via webcam is painfully forced, a later sports montage at a Quidditch match just as forced, and some of the scenes where Vaughn and Wilson improvise are trying too hard. Disappointing because I liked parts of it, just not enough to fully recommend.

The Internship (2013): **/****

The Watch

2012's The Watch sucked. That's all I've got. It sucked. By all means, keep reading though. I enjoy writing reviews for movies that were God awful as much as the ones I loved, maybe more so. Go figure.

Having lived his whole life in Glenview, Ohio, Evan Trautwig (Ben Stiller) does his best to give back to the community, starting clubs and events to bring people together. His polite, little world is thrown for a loop though when a night security guard at the Costco he manages is found brutally murdered. He decides to do something about it though, starting a Community Watch with three other Glenview residents, Bob (Vince Vaughn), Franklin (Jonah Hill) and Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade). No one in town thinks much of this group -- what can they actually accomplish the cops can't? -- and when they can't manage to find do anything right, that thought seems pretty fair. Then one night doing a patrol around town, the Watch finds something none of them expected.....an alien! Oh no! What to do?!?

Thanks to marketing, some horrifically bad timing, and in general, a pretty checkered production, this is a flick that could have been doomed from the start. Countless directors, writers and stars were at one point on-board with this flick before Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were brought on board to write a harsher, R-rated comedy. Then in May 2012, a Neighborhood Watch member shot a teenage boy, setting off a torrent of reactions on both sides, and eventually changing the original title, Neighborhood Watch, to The Watch. Then, in Colorado in the weeks before its release, a mass shooting at a movie theater clearly had an impact on audiences going out to see any films. Whatever led up to the film's release though, it's hard to look past the fact that this is one stupid movie that just isn't very good.

So before I continue, I'll say that for the first 15-20 minutes of this flick, I was enjoying it. It had that right mix of humor (both smart and stupid) and was at least laying the groundwork for a funny movie. Then, everything hits the fan in a big old way, and I'm struggling to come up with one specific reason why. One, it simply tries too hard. The cast assembled has a ton of talent. The laughs and humor don't have to be aggressively thrown in our face. Instead of just being funny though, the laughs are loud, overdone and in most cases, settling for the lowest common denominator. "Oh, Jonah Hill is crazy and swears a lot!" Two, it doesn't know what it is by any means. As Evan and the Watch investigate a freaking alien appearing, the story veers off into the personal. We learn that Evan is sterile, but hasn't told his wife (Rosemarie Dewitt). Bob's daughter (Erin Moriarty) intends to hook up with an all-around a-hole, and Bob intends to stop her. Who cares? It's an R-rated comedy, let's not get all after school special on the viewer.

Not so surprising, the script relies heavily on the four stars to lead the way with mixed results. With the right role, Ben Stiller can be a pretty good actor, usually playing the straight man to the hijinks all around him. This is almost that part, but not, as he's the straight man who....has to act crazy too? Vaughn gets most of the big laughs, but he resorts too much to LOUD Vince Vaughn, talking so ridiculously fast and ranting that it feels like we've seen it before in countless other movies. Hill is just bad as Franklin, the unhinged nut who is willing to do anything and everything to help the cause, but mostly he just wants to have some messed-up fun. The bright spot is Ayoade as Jamarcus, the quiet, nerdy guy who seems like the odd duck in the group. It works though because his laughs are usually underplayed and/or understated.

Also look for Billy Crudup in an uncredited part as Evan's suspicious neighbor across the street, Will Forte and Mel Rodriguez as two local cops having fun messing with the Watch, R. Lee Ermey as a pissed off neighbor, and the Lonely Island crew, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Watch director Akiva Schaffer making a cameo at a party Evan and Jamarcus stumble into.

Through all the stupidity and mindless humor, there were bits that worked here. Unfortunately, most of those bits were shown in the trailer so they don't come as a surprise. The Watch taking some pictures and having some generally chaotic fun with a supposedly dead alien is hilarious and Evan and Bob endlessly shooting another dead alien later is funny in an odd, subtle but not subtle fashion. In the end though, things fall apart as several twists are thrown our way that don't add up. The humor gets even more juvenile -- if that was possible -- and just ends up trying far too hard to impress us as viewers and get a laugh.

The Watch (2012): */****     

The Dilemma

The movie just didn't seem to go with the name. Ron Howard directing this kind of comedy? It just didn't seem up to his reputation or directing ability. This is the guy who directed Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon, Cinderella Man, and now he's behind a goofy-looking comedy? That was my mindset heading into 2011's The Dilemma.

Going back to their days in college, Ronny (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Kevin James) have been best friends through thick and thin to the point where they're now business partners. A huge deal with Chrysler looms, transitioning electric motors into recognizable, respected muscle cars. Everything about their business hangs in the balance and both are appropriately nervous, making Ronny's discovery that much more awkward. One day Ronny sees Nick's wife, Geneva (Winona Ryder), on a date with another man. What should he do? If so, how? Should he keep it secret? Uh-oh, decisions, decisions.

As I'm noticing more and more with big budget comedies, I felt duped by this one. Whether it was commercials, trailers or even the DVD cover, 'Dilemma' was billed and advertised as a goofy -- even stupid -- comedy with some over the top slapstick humor that made light of....well, cheating on your spouse. It isn't. Plain and simple, it just isn't. The attempts at humor don't always work, and some are so far overdone that they can be painful to watch. Lame attempts at laughs aside, it's darker than advertised, significantly darker.

And that's where 'Dilemma' struggles to get any footing. As talented a director as Howard is, he goofed here in a big way. Make a stupid, goofy, light-hearted comedy that has no basis in real life or go the complete opposite direction and go so impossibly dark that you will feel bad for laughing. Instead, it stays in that messy middle ground where it can't be either. The sad thing is that early on I was at least mildly enjoying the story. I was enjoying it more as a sort of personal drama -- hold the laughs -- but it takes a detour for the highly obvious. Vaughn's Ronny having an epic showdown with Zip (Channing Tatum), the "rock star" sleeping with Geneva, is bizarre in nature, so over the top that it ceases to be funny. The same goes later for Ronny's speech at an anniversary party. No basis in reality, no sense of any chance of this actually happening.

Watching the story degenerate as it did, I was encouraged by the characters and the talent involved. The characters are dark, and no one's perfect even as we learn more about their backgrounds. No one is faultless here. For the most part Vaughn is able to tone down his motor-mouth self and ends up being a pretty decent lead. James is a good counter to him, a friendship between the two men believable. Ryder seems dead-set on playing Evil Incarnate while Jennifer Connelly is given little to do as Ronny's long-time girlfriend who's gone through some rough patches with him. Queen Latifah has some funny scenes too as Ronny and Nick's Chrysler liaison with some odd sexual metaphors for their business agreement.

Because there's not much else to rip and/or praise, I can say Howard did a great job picking Chicago as his story's location. As a resident, I can say it is a city that just looks good on the big screen. Much of 'Dilemma' was filmed on-location, and the movie is boosted by it. We get some cool shots of downtown, not to mention a couple ventures to a Blackhawks game including a funny ending. Locations aside though, the movie is tolerable at best unfortunately.

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

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

In a career that has spanned five decades since he shot to stardom in the 1970s, director Steven Spielberg has quite the impressive filmography under his belt with a handful of classics and a few more not quite but close classics. Easily one of his best is 1993's Jurassic Park, a great film that is as good now in 2011 as it was 18 years ago. It opened the door for all sorts of new movies with new technology.  It's exciting, action-packed, and unique.

Of course, then there's the 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park which isn't as bad as some critics out to be but at the same time is nowhere near as good as it could/should have been. It's unfair to peg this movie as the one that opened the floodgates, but it's certainly one of the first series/franchises that turned a great stand-alone movie into unnecessary sequel one after another. That's my biggest issue with so many franchises. Harry Potter? Those sequels needed to be made to finish out the story. Jurassic Park? The first film is pretty much perfect as it is, and didn't need sequels.  But you wouldn't be reading this is someone didn't want to make piles of money so here we go.

It's been four years since the disaster at Isla Nuba and mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is still trying to put the experience behind him. He is approached by InGen head and creator of Jurassic Park John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) with a proposition. There were actually two islands where dinosaurs lived, and he wants Malcolm and a small team to go to the second island and investigate, see how the creatures are living without human interference. Malcolm refuses...briefly, until he finds out his girlfriend, Sarah (Julianne Moore), a geologist, is already on the island so he agrees to go along. Finding Sarah proves to be the easy part as a financially struggling InGen sends an expedition to the island at the same time. Their objective? Capture dinosaurs so they can be exhibited for a world-wide audience. Malcolm, Sarah and the little team are caught in the middle as T-Rex, velociraptors and more are on the hunt.

I've long been a fan of Michael Crichton's novels, but this is one of the few I haven't read, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of the movie to begin with. If I didn't like the movie much, could the book save it at all? Eh, maybe down the road I'll get to it. My main issue with the movie though is that it is basically a carbon copy of the first movie, but without the energy or excitement. It is the definition of an unnecessary sequel. The script is bad, full of laughable one-liners and equally laughable scenarios, and the action/chases don't know when to stop, an orgy of adrenaline and drama that goes overboard whenever it gets the chance. If you're trying to repeat success, add something to it, don't just settle for the status quo.

What saves this from being a complete waste of time is what else? Surprise, surprise...the dinosaurs, and more specifically the dinosaurs eating people.  You really just can't go wrong with that formula.  The surprise factor of the first movie -- seeing dinosaurs, even if they are CGI -- has worn off some, but the little kid in you can't help but smile when a dinosaur (check that, any dinosaur) comes on-screen. Then think of a T-Rex and its awesomeness, and then a pack of raptors working together...yeah, definitely can't go wrong there. There are characters around who are meant to be dino-bait, and Spielberg certainly finds some unique ways to kill the baddies.  So throw out the action scenes that drag on end into tedium, you've still got a whole lot of badass dinosaurs killing people. Good stuff. Oh, and throw in John Williams' epic, sweeping and iconic score for good measure.

The more I see of Goldblum, the more I suspect he's not acting. He's just playing himself. His Dr. Malcolm isn't an ideal choice to lead a movie, but his character is still pretty cool.  Moore plays Sarah, the girlfriend who -- no disrespect to Moore, just the character -- could have been played by anyone.  She has to run around with Malcolm and look worried.  Oh wait, that's everyone, cardboard cutouts of characters. My bad.  Vince Vaughn and Richard Schiff are good as the other member of Ian and Sarah's team while screen veteran Pete Postlethwaite is a scene-stealer as Roland Tembo, a big game hunter leading InGen's expedition, his desire to bag a T-rex driving him into danger. Look for Arliss Howard and Peter Stormare as two bad guys you just know will meet a nasty fate as well with Attenborough briefly making an appearance as Hammond, still cool and clueless as ever.

There are just elements of unexplained weirdness here that make you question 'Really? That's the best you got?' The biggie for me has always been Malcolm's daughter, Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester), who secretly travels with dear old Dad to the island, not realizing the danger she's put herself in. You'll notice if you look at her IMDB page that she is an African American actress. Not a racist comment, just a comment because the movie never addresses this. Is she adopted? Did Malcolm steal her from a black family? Mostly though beyond just a weird race angle is that her character is annoying and doesn't serve a purpose. Malcolm's already worried about Sarah, and then you throw in another reason. That's great. She also takes out a raptor via a gymnastics act. That ranks high on the list of all-time stupidest movie scenes ever.

The movie on the whole is a mixed bag. Certain scenes are just bad, and action scenes -- like two T-rex's attacking a camper -- just go on too long, not knowing when to pull the plug. If this was any old dinosaur movie, it'd be pretty good in a 'so bad it's good' fashion. But it isn't, following one of the all-time greats, Jurassic Park. Very watchable and generally a pretty dumb movie, but you can do worse.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park <---trailer (1997): ** 1/2 /****