Bill Hader

‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ Tastes Right For All Generations

BrianTT — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:30:57 -0600

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Proving that you should never judge an animated film by its cover or its typically predictable brethren, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is a very funny comedy with one of the best voice casts in years, an enjoyable visual aesthetic, and even a heartwarming message that doesn’t come off over-cooked.

As someone who sees nearly every animated film released in the ’00s, I can tell you that most of them are disposable, interchangeable, and predictable. For every “Up” or “Coraline,” there are a half-dozen “Barnyard” or “Open Season”s. So, it brings me great, surprising pleasure to say that “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” defies all expectations and I doubt any animated film will be as purely entertaining this season. Young kids, older brothers, babysitters, parents, and even grandparents will find something to like here.

Sam Sparks voiced by Anna Faris and Flint Lockwood voiced by Bill Hader in Columbia Pictures’ animated film Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Song Pictures

Only based on the set-up for Judi & Ron Barret’s beloved children’s book (but fully capturing the spirit of a book designed around food weather), the story opens on the island of Swallow Falls, a dull, gloomy setting known mostly for being hidden under the ‘A’ in Atlantic Ocean on most maps and for its killer sardine industry.

Sam Sparks voiced by Anna Faris with Flint Lockwood voiced by Bill Hader in Columbia Pictures’ animated film Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) refuses to give in to his depressing surroundings and works to come up with one great, world-changing invention. Previous attempts include the ill-conceived rat-bird hybrid and a device that translates monkey’s thoughts. It turns out that most monkeys think of only their name and what they want to eat. (In a typically surreal move, the end credits reveal that Neil Patrick Harris voices the monkey Steve even though he has nearly no dialogue.)

Flint’s latest device is one that turns water into food. All he wants is a cheeseburger but an incident with power lines, sends his machine into the stratosphere, where there’s more than enough moisture for Big Macs, spaghetti, giant pancakes, and much more. It turns out that Flint still has access to the great computer in the sky. Want steak tomorrow? Talk to Flint and it will fall from the sky.

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility and Flint pushes his world-changing invention too much, resulting in some truly twisted weather fronts. The story of Flint and his magical machine thrusts young weathergirl Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) into the spotlight and shakes the life of all the island residents including the weight-gaining mayor (Bruce Campbell), tough cop (Mr. T.), former sardine ad star (Andy Samberg), and even Flint’s tough father (James Caan).

Sam Sparks voiced by Anna Faris with Flint Lockwood voiced by Bill Hader in Columbia Pictures’ animated film Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Clearly, the voice cast of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is made up of talented, clever choices. Hader & Faris are fantastic, making their characters easy to root for and the rest of the ensemble, especially Caan, are pitch-perfect.

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is continuously clever both visually and with some razor-sharp dialogue. Courtesy of writer/directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, “Cloudy” accomplishes the feat of giving children something to care about and visuals to ooh and aah at and giving adults laughs that will certainly go over the heads of the little ones sometimes in the same moment (for example, a video of a kitten singing “Fight the Power” had me laughing as hard as anything in a long time for a different reason than the toddler in the row behind me).

Even the messages of the film - stay true to yourself and your dreams and sometimes it’s okay to be the smartest person in town - aren’t over-played like they are in so many family films. The film feels a bit longer than its 90 minutes and the 3D is borderline unnecessary, feeling more like an afterthought and washing out the vibrant colors of the second half of the film, but those are the only minor flaws of one of the most surprisingly tasty treats that the animation genre has produced so far this year.

‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ features voice work by Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Mr. T, Bruce Campbell, Andy Samberg, and Neil Patrick Harris. It was written and directed by Phil Lord & Chris Miller. It opened on September 18th, 2009. It is rated PG.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

‘Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian’ is Predictable, Clustered Drivel

Ebeth — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:30:37 -0600

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – The sequel “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” is, presumably, an effort by director Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum” in 2006 and “The Pink Panther”) and writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (who both wrote the first film) to weave together an exciting and educational film.

After all, the concept remains clever and plot endless in possibilities. Museum exhibits come to life through ancient magic with wildlife running amuck, significant historical figures repossessed and left to interact as well as all sorts of artifacts renewed and at the disposal of all.

Ben Stiller returns as heroic museum guard Larry Daley in “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”.
Photo credit: Doane Gregory, Fox Pictures

Add to this formula a knockout cast – with Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Robin Williams, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Bill Hader and Jonah Hill – and one can expect hilarity and stimulation.

Instead, the filmgoer will quite amazingly find little engagement in this movie and instead will be confronted with a predictable, “when’s it going to end?” storyline that amounts to little but clustered drivel. The opposite of stimulating, the film simply numbs and dumbs the mind.

Upon opening, we find that former museum guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) has left his job at the Museum of Natural History to pursue a more lucrative career: inventor and infomercial personality. It becomes clear through rushed and skipped-about scenes that he’s unfulfilled in his new life and is quickly led back to wander the halls of his former museum-guard dwellings.

Egyptian pharaoh Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) strikes a villainous pose in “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”.
Photo credit: Doane Gregory, Fox Pictures

Upon his return to the Museum of Natural History, Larry finds that the majority of the exhibits he came to know in the original “Night at the Museum” are being shipped for storage in the basement of the Smithsonian.

Larry does little about this until he gets a frantic phone call from the miniature cowboy, Jedediah (Owen Wilson), who pleads for help at the awakened Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Jedediah states that Egyptian royalty Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) is attacking and threatening evil reign.

Larry is quickly off to intervene in the battle and save his former comrades.

In its entirety, the plot of this film feels like a garage sale jigsaw puzzle: its pieces out of order, warped and shoved into places they don’t go with a few extra pieces thrown into the box.

One could imagine the writers clinging hard to some original ideas of how to personify the exhibits – while trying to mix these pieces with pop-culture and product promotions – and then trying too hard to make it appeal broadly within the given time. The end result is rushed and fragmented. It leaves one to wonder if the Smithsonian has ever seemed so “empty”.

There are, though, a few bright points scattered about the otherwise lacking experience. These moments include the scenes carried by Hank Azaria’s Kahmunrah. Azzaria chattering out the snappy lines of an Egyptian ruler reincarnate with a lisp is a priceless comic choice.

Amy Adams embraces her role as Ameila Earhart and is bright and commanding with it. Unfortunately, the script leads her character into a rather one-dimensional role and down the path of a grossly undeveloped and seemingly pointless romance. She is memorable, however, for the spunk she brings to the screen.

Amy Adams is famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart in “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”.
Photo credit: Doane Gregory, Fox Pictures

Jonah Hill as a Smithsonian guard has great execution while bantering with Stiller’s Larry. Chalk up quite a few funnies in their interaction. However, the various talents (i.e. Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt) go greatly underused with essentially too much too quick for any sort of real connection or care.

Though providing some unique and notable moments where famous statues and paintings are brought to life, special effects dwindle in their effectiveness. Scenes toward the conclusion of the main conflict become reminiscent of 1990s video games graphics.

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Ben Stiller’s performance can only be described as disengaged. Bill Hader’s portrayal of General Custer is distractedly corny and riddled with a cartoonish overacting though he – like Amy Adams – feels poorly scripted. In a similar boat, Owen Wilson as Jedediah struggles through his scribbled and thoughtless lines.

Overall, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” falls short of its predecessor. The tale of a father and son regaining connection, a resolved romantic subplot and the resolving of conflict within the wakened exhibits were all chapters explored and resolved in the first. The sequel is unoriginal – revolving again around unresolved conflict between exhibits and an attempt at a romantic subplot.

This time, we find the idea riddled with far too many details, dead-end chapters and underdeveloped characters. Instead of a trip to this film, a trip to an actual museum is recommended. At least then one would be certain that cherub sculptures look like cherubs – not the Jonas Brothers – and Einstein is not famous for his disco song references.

“Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” which stars Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Robin Williams, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Bill Hader and Jonah Hill from director Shawn Levy and writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, opened everywhere on May 22, 2009. The film is rated PG for mild action and brief language.

By ELIZABETH OPPRIECHT
HollywoodChicago.com
elizabeth@hollywoodchicago.com

God’s Vajoojoo Tastes Like Semi-Glorious ‘Pineapple Express’ in Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen Stoner Film

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:01:00 -0600

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – If god had a vajoojoo, Judd Apatow and company think it’d taste something like smoking “Pineapple Express”. There’s no question “Pineapple Express” is ultimately a stoner film, but is it the ultimate stoner film of our decade?

Always the most difficult proposition in a comedy is maintaining its comedic pacing with consistency.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen, standing) and Saul Silver (James Franco, being carried) are two lazy stoners running for their lives in “Pineapple Express”.
Photo credit: Dale Robinette

A comedy’s goal is to sidesplittingly laugh your socks off from start to finish (and even after the credits roll). So often, though, a semi-successful comedy will instead feel like a humorous rollercoaster replete with some ups and some downs due to the inability to maintain its “A”-game material in a consistent fashion.

“Pineapple Express” falls victim to the comedic consistency trap. While the story has its heart in the right place for a film that’s centered on reefer madness and the script successfully grows ever-more complex and ridiculous, the story needs to be sliced and diced.

For every two comedic lines that successfully land one falls short. While the film certainly has the beginnings of stoner-film greatness, it’s still sometimes stifled by lines that had the potential to be roundhouse knockouts and instead were crippled stumbles.

Saul Silver (James Franco, left), Red (Danny McBride, center) and Dale Denton (Seth Rogen, right) in “Pineapple Express”.
Photo credit: Dale Robinette

That said, everything successful about “Pineapple Express” comes in threes from its writing (Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg) and its primary actors (Seth Rogen, James Franco and Danny McBride).

There’s a lot of talk about James Franco playing against type for this role. Based on his performance, though, this shouldn’t be viewed as Franco playing against type. This should be viewed as Franco having found his type. For Franco, all other roles pale in comparison.

Despite his excruciatingly untalented performances in box-office monoliths “Spider-Man,” “Spider-Man 2” and “Spider-Man 3,” Franco’s drug-dealing, always-high demeanor in “Pineapple Express” proves he indeed has acting chops that have been otherwise been hidden away. All he needed was a little Mary Jane to deliver him from acting evil.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen, left) and Saul Silver (James Franco, right) are two lazy stoners in “Pineapple Express”.
Photo credit: Dale Robinette

Now a painfully atrocious “Pineapple Express” performance by Rosie Perez – who hasn’t delivered a noteworthy performance since 1992’s “White Men Can’t Jump” (or 2001’s “Riding in Cars with Boys,” but that’s really stretching things) – without a doubt is the trippy film’s biggest buzzkill.

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Gary Cole (her partner in crime) delivers an equally frightful performance. Amber Heard – a name you’ve likely never heard of before – continues trying to make her way in Hollywood after being bolstered by various “hot” ratings from magazines including Jane and Maxim.

Heard plays Rogen’s much younger high school girlfriend who fits with him just as much as a Mormon fits married to a Jew. Though this film is marketed with the burgeoning star power of James Franco and Seth Rogen behind the powerful comedic name of writer and producer Judd Apatow, we are not to forget Danny McBride.

Whether you loved McBride or hated him in “The Foot Fist Way” (or have never even heard of that film), “Pineapple Express” isn’t just the duo its advertising may have made you believe. McBride is the necessary tripod of this trio. Rogen co-wrote the story along with Apatow and Evan Goldberg (who also wrote “Superbad” along with Rogen).

“Pineapple Express,” which is directed by David Gordon Green and is written by Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow and Evan Goldberg, stars Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Rosie Perez, Amber Heard, Gary Cole and Kevin Corrigan. The film opened everywhere on Aug. 6, 2008.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Judd Apatow Again Fashions Gimmick Into Gold in Uproarious ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:00:37 -0600

CHICAGO – After being blitzed by an onslaught of attention-demanding advertising that begged the question “who is Sarah Marshall?” even before you realized it’s a film, anticipation was ravenous.

Kristen Bell as Sarah Marshall in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.
Photo credit: IMDb

It became nothing short of voracious upon learning it’s backed by producer Judd Apatow of “Superbad,” “Knocked Up,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” fame (also with high hopes for his “Pineapple Express,” which opens on Aug. 8, 2008).

Through his Apatow Productions company, Apatow has made beaucoup bucks and a mountainous name by banding together the same stooges time and time again.

In “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” we’re treated to the return of Bill Hader and Jonah Hill (both in Apatow’s “Superbad” and “Knocked Up” together).

While it’s still early in the year and few films have stood out to date, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” indeed delivers on its hype as the funniest comedy so far in 2008.

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Apatow has once again fashioned what could have been cheesy gimmick into delicious gold. In a telltale sign of its riotous good time, Chicago critics have even been promising to return on opening weekend for a second paid viewing with friends.

While first-time filmmaking talent is often a precarious, hit-or-miss gamble, it pays off in spades this time.

The film is written by first-time writer Jason Segel (who features himself in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” as main-character Peter Bretter – and often buck naked, too) and directed by first-time director Nicholas Stoller (who wrote 2005’s “Fun With Dick and Jane”).

While Segel’s writing valiantly laughs you out of your chair all throughout the film, his starring role within his own words takes some time to earn your trust. Up until about halfway through, I kept questioning whether he was tragically miscast for the lead.

His big, teddy-bear demeanor and charming naïveté, though, wins you over by the climax. Here’s a small taste of some of his written nuggets of gold, too:

Matthew (played by Jonah Hill): “I have a question for you real quick. What did you think of my demo? Did you get it?”

Aldous Snow (played by Russell Brand): “I was gonna listen to that, but then – um – I just carried on living my life.”

Jason Segel (left) and Kristen Bell in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.
Photo credit: IMDb

Just as much as Segel stars in the film as Peter, Kristen Bell equally co-stars in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” as the siren everyone has been talking about before even arriving to the theaters in droves: Sarah Marshall.

Bell (who played Veronica Mars in “Veronica Mars”) burns up the screen every second she’s on it and is cast in the comedy with perfection.

The Ukrainian Mila Kunis – who you’d know as Jackie Burkhart in “That ‘70s Show” – is a wholesome addition who’s part saint and part sinner. Bill Hader as Peter’s brother, Brian Bretter, again rocks the casbah in his portrayal of the advice-spewing, Webcam-coaching sibling.

Paul Rudd (also in “Knocked Up”) as Chuck the surf-lesson guy is wonderfully way, way out there.

Russell Brand in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.
Photo credit: IMDb

Jonah Hill is hysterically written in as a waiter named Matthew who not-so-subtly has a professional man crush on the unanticipated diamond in the film’s rough: Russell Brand.

Brand completely oozes himself into the eccentrically carefree, libidinous rock star named Aldous Snow who scoops up Sarah Marshall after she bulldozes Peter Bretter’s heart.

As Peter mourns the loss of his girlfriend and sees his confidence swell, he falls into the lap of Mila Kunis while she’s working at a Hawaiian resort.

Though from the text typed in this review it’d sound catastrophically lame, Peter even woos you with the distinctly unusual and decidedly novel concept of a Dracula rock-band puppet show.

While “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” in tagged with lots of puff and catchphrasing – including “a comedy about getting dumped and taking it like a man” and “the ultimate romantic disaster movie” – the film’s ultimately and indisputably one of the most entertaining ways you could spend 112 minutes.

“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” opened on April 18, 2008.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com