Reviews

I'm a big fan of Seth Rogen and Ray Liotta, and Anna Faris is one of the few actresses that can be both sexy and funny. That said, they should all be embarrassed to be part of this trash.

I'm almost impossible to offend. Nudity? Never bothered me. Language? Not a problem. Violence? Bring it on. As long, of course, as the end result is a quality film.

This film managed to be both offensive and vapid. There's nothing groundbreaking or clever about this film. It's just disgusting.

The film involves a mall cop's attempts to catch a flasher who's been terrorizing patrons. The flasher figures in to the one genuine laugh in the film (SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!). Rogen's character and the nice girl love interest share a sweet kiss across a food court table, and the flasher appears, penis dangling. It was a clever, surprising moment. Unfortunately, the filmmakers don't seem to understand the power of "less is more". That brief shot is followed by a good 60 seconds of the flasher- fully, frontally nude- being chased through the mall. Not funny. Not clever. Not creative. Just disgusting.

Pineapple Express wasn't a perfect film, but it contained a great mix of Pulp Fiction-style violence with raunchy comedy. This piece of crap aims for the same mix, but misses horribly.

Don't see this movie. Please, do not reward these people with your hard earned dollars.

Put your politics aside: this is just a really poorly made film.

The story revolves around "Michael Malone", who represents Michael Moore, and is told in the fashion of A Christmas Carol.

The Malone character is a 2 dimensional caricature of Moore. Other than constantly calling him anti-American, the satire primarily involves jokes about his weight and body odor.

Some very talented people are involved in this film; Leslie Nielsen, Kelsey Grammar, James Woods, etc. David Zucker directed. This movie could have been very good.

The attempt was to make an Airplane style slapstick. In a desperate attempt at being "Politically Incorrect", the film resorts to borderline racist portrayals of Muslims, homophobic depictions of lesbians, and body function jokes.

Instead of a sharp, biting satire on the "Hollywood Left", it's a series of Limbaugh-esquire platitudes and silly generalizations.

Although this film contains many of the same thematic elements as American Beauty, its handling of hose elements is very, very different.

American Beauty, when all is said and done, actually had a hidden optimism to it. As Lester Burnham said, he was grateful for every moment of his stupid little life. That was a film of redemption, at least from the point of view of the Lester character.

The Weather Man, however, ends one a more fatalistic note. Essentially, Dave's final monologue can be summed up as, "it is what it is, but it could be worse." Which is, in fact, how many people view their lives.

All in all, this is a damn fine film. Cage's performance was calm and remarkably real. I shudder to think what a scene-chewer like, say, Robin Williams might have done with this role.

As to the veracity of the dialog and the plot, anybody who's ever been through a divorce, or experienced a bad marriage, will recognize a lot in the scenes between Cage and Hope Davis. A few posters mentioned that the tartar sauce incident struck them as superficial, and the characters' responses childish. Perhaps. Tartar sauce isn't a big deal, after all. But the scene was very, very accurate in portraying the way failing marriages can explode. The fight wasn't about tartar sauce, it was about every other problem in this couple's marriage.

There's a fairly predictable yet very poignant subplot involving the teenage son and an attempted molestation. I get the impression that an important scene or two related to that subplot were left off the final cut, but it's a minor flaw. That storyline served primarily to underscore the ways in which Cage's character cared about his family, and the beginnings of his attempt to put something of his life back together.

The supporting actors were outstanding, but this film really belongs to Nicolas Cage and Gore Verbinsky. There's a lot going on beside the obvious weather metaphors- not that there's anything wrong with an obvious metaphor- such as the ways in which Cage's obsession with archery actually helps him to focus in his personal life.

This isn't a comedy, and I can understand the negative reactions of those who expected a comedy, although there are some laugh out loud funny moments. If you've ever struggled with your marriage, or if you've ever looked in the mirror and realized you're simply not the person you had always hoped, this film will feel very, very familiar.

Perhaps it's good that so many people didn't connect with the film. Maybe that simply means they haven't experienced those issues. But if one's primary gripe is that the film isn't funny or that the language is rough, then one probably isn't really up to a film of this caliber.

Rent it.

Sweet Mother Of Mercy, is this thing a stinker!

This is clearly one of those "too many cooks spoil the soup" kind of Hollywood productions. It's obvious that this was written as a group effort, with LOTS of notes from the studio. It's got everything- a little coy sex, an evil terrorist conspiracy run by a psychopathic patriot, even a "sweet" father/daughter angle.

The plot is beyond ridiculous, the acting is (mostly) marginal to poor, and don't get me started on the famed "Halle's Breasts" scene.

SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!!!!!!!

Well, not much of a spoiler, but here goes anyway. If you've heard the hype about Halle Berry going topless, you will laugh your butt off when that scene arrives. There's absolutely NO reason for her to BE topless, nothing happens BECAUSE she's topless, she's just topless. For about 15 seconds. And then the next scene begins. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed seeing her topless- the best part of this God-awful film, actually- but this defines the word "gratuitous".

John Travolta plays a slight variation on his character from "Broken Arrow". Hugh Jackman is good as the hacker, Stan, but the backstory about his daughter, ex-wife, and her new husband is laugh out loud stupid.

Please, Please, Please, don't rent this movie or see it, even at the 2 dollar Bargain theater. It will only encourage them to turn out more such rubbish.

Rent "Hackers" instead.