You may have heard of a film called Sullivan’s Travels, and if you’ve heard of it, you may know the gist: Popular but unfulfilled director Sullivan is tired of making commercially successful but emotionally and intellectually vapid films. He decides that his next film (named O Brother, Where Art Thou?) will be a socially conscious depiction of the lower classes.

Through a series of comic mix-ups, he gets tossed in prison. One night a cartoon is screened for the inmates and Sullivan has an epiphany: The best way he can help the downtrodden is not by making high drama, but low-brow crowd-pleasers.

Larry Crowne is the kind of movie Sullivan would make if he were alive today. It’s full of plot-holes, cheap laughs, lazy pop-culture references, and utterly devoid of conflict. But for the women-age-45-and-up demographic wanting to see a cute romantic comedy with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts (have they ever been paired together? I can’t recall), this should suffice.

Tom Hanks, who wrote, directed, and produced it, plays Crowne, a middle-aged supermarket drone/former Naval cook who loses his beloved job because he never went to college. Low on cash but doggone tenacious, he enrolls in community college, taking a speech class taught by the jaded Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts, who’s getting more attractive with age) and an Econ 101 class taught by the zany Dr. Matsutani (George Takei).

Continue Reading →

I had a great time at Date Night. You would be hard pressed to find more likable leads than Tina Fey and Steve Carrell, who have great chemistry together as boring New Jersey couple Claire and Phil Foster. Stuck in a serious domestic rut that many of you will recognize all too well, the two decide to shake up their usual date night of frequenting the same restaurant and ordering the same dishes on the same night every week.

They get dolled up and head to Manhattan to the über trendy seafood restaurant, “Claws.”  A rude host scoffs at their hopes for getting a table, and the two head to the bar.  Just as they are getting ready to leave, another hostess goes through the bar, calling out for “Tripplehorn, party of two.”

Phil decides to seize the moment and do something spontaneous for once in his life, and he says that they are the Tripplehorns. The two enjoy a fancy dinner with wine, delight over a Will.i am celebrity sighting and make fun of stuffy restaurant patrons.

They are approached by two strange men who approach the table and tell the couple that they have something to discuss with them.  Outside the restaurant, Claire and Phil immediately discover that the real Tripplehorns are messed up with some bad people, and those bad people want a flash drive that belongs to them back.  Guns are drawn, and the Fosters try to explain that it’s a case of mistaken identity, but the thugs don’t believe them, and the Fosters have to improvise their way out of the predicament.

Continue Reading →

I defy you to find an 80′s child who doesn’t recognize it when someone poses for the “Crane Kick.” The move was made legendary when it was used to win the “All Valley Karate Championship” at the end of 1984′s The Karate Kid. The film was the beginning of a franchise that became an institution for tons of teens during that decade, and now they’ve gone and remade it.

The reboot stars Jackie Chan as “Mr. Han” and Jaden Smith (The Day the Earth Stood Still and Will Smith’s son), as “Dre Parker.” It’s an updated story that takes the setting from Southern California to Beijing. Mr. Han will be teaching Dre karate (or maybe it will be kung-fu – most American audiences don’t know the difference) and putting him through workouts that might strain Jean Claude van Damme.

The movie also features Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as Dre’s mother and has Harald Zwart (The Pink Panther 2, One Night at McCool’s) in the director’s chair. I have to admit there are a couple of cute and funny moments in the trailer, all involving Chan’s interaction with Smith.

There’s even a nice nod to the fly-catching scene in the original film. The only problem I see so far is that the “Crane Kick” seems to have been replaced with a high-splits kick – which just isn’t as cool.

Check out the trailer and let us know what you think.

Continue Reading →