July 3, 2009 - The Austin Chronicle

C ALE N D AR ( COMMUNITY SPORTS ARTS FILM MUSIC) L I S TINGSHarperHarper (1966) D: Jack Smight; with PaulNewman, Lauren Bacall, Shelley Winters, RobertWagner, Janet Leigh. (NR, 121 min.) Summer FilmClassics: Newman – Both Sides of the Law. Newmanplays a hard-boiled private investigator who is basedon novelist Ross Macdonald’s character Lew Archer.He’s hired to find the missing husband of a characterplayed by Bacall. Delicious supporting work roundsout this mystery. (Double bill: Cool Hand Luke.)@Paramount, Tuesday, 9:30pm; Wednesday, 7pm.wTHE HANGOVER D: Todd Phillips; withBradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, JustinBartha, Heather Graham, Ken Jeong, Mike Tyson, Mike Epps,Sasha Barrese, Rachael Harris, Jeffrey Tambor. (R, 99 min.)The Hangover instantly has the feel of one forthe ages. It is deliciously darker than Phillips’ previouscomedies, Old School and Road Trip, but itisn’t as thick with malice as those credits suggest.“Bromance” is too dopey of a word for what goes onhere; The Hangover honors the significance of malefriendship without insisting on its primacy. The occasionhere is the Vegas-set bachelor party for Doug(Bartha), organized by his three groomsmen: Phil(Cooper), straitlaced Stu (Helms), and Doug’s nonsequitur-spoutingfuture brother-in-law, Alan (the sublimeGalifianakis, so outré he’s toeing performanceart here). They wake the next morning, surroundedby the spoils of the party (a scorched hotel suite,a missing tooth, a tiger in the bathroom), but withzero recollection of how it all happened. An edgierfilm could have been carved out of that premise, butyou’d be hard-pressed to find one as consistently,relentlessly funny. (06/05/2009) – Kimberley Jones★★★★■Alamo Ritz, Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek,Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar Park, Hill CountryGalleria, CM Round Rock, Southpark Meadows, Dobie,Highland, Gateway, Lakeline, Metropolitan, TinseltownNorth, WestgateHANNAH MONTANA: THE72 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E JULY 3, 2009 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o mMOVIE D: Peter Chelsom; with Miley Cyrus, Billy RayCyrus, Emily Osment, Jason Earles, Lucas Till, Melora Hardin,Vanessa Williams, Margo Martindale. (G, 92 min.)I won’t pretend to understand the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana phenomenon; it surely boils down tosome combination of commercial savvy: Cyrus’ sweet,uncomplicated charisma and a tween market hungeringfor a happy compromise between relateability andwish fulfillment. In any case, for this, the first nonconcertfeature outing for the Montana juggernaut, therewas never any doubt that the audience would come.More surprising is the fact that some attention (if notan exhaustive amount) has been put into the thing:Hannah Montana: The Movie is not the nakedly consumeristvehicle cynics like me have come to expect.In fact, it’s a broad-stroked, agreeable-enough larkabout Miley putting Hannah aside to reconnect withher Tennessee roots – and make eyes at that farmfreshhorse wrangler from her childhood. Cornponecaricatures abound, but so do worthy messages aboutresponsibility – to family, community, even MotherEarth. (04/17/2009)– Kimberley Jones★★★■Movies 8IMAGINE THAT D: Karey Kirkpatrick; withEddie Murphy, Yara Shahidi, Thomas Haden Church,Vanessa Williams, Nicole Ari Parker, Ronny Cox, MartinSheen. (PG, 107 min.)Imagine That, at times charming and frequentlysweet, is a family film with engaging performances,a straightforward moral for parents everywhere, andenough giggles to keep both parents and their youngcharges amused – all without a single fart joke.Murphy is Evan Danielson, a workaholic financial analystthat has become an archetype of the separateddad to his 7-year-old daughter, Olivia, who has conjureda band of imaginary friends to offset her lack of a caringfather figure. As it happens, her invisible pals havea knack for finance, and soon dad and daughter arebonding over magic kingdoms and stock portfolios. Allin all, Imagine That is an amiable detour from its star’susual penchant for toilet humor and bad taste. Kidswill empathize, parents will breathe a sigh of relief, andfilm critics will be much relieved at not having to thumbthrough their thesauri seeking another synonym for“gaseous.” (06/12/2009)★★★ Metropolitan– Marc SavlovLAND OF THE LOST D: Brad Silberling;with Will Ferrell, Anna Friel, Danny McBride, JormaTaccone, John Boylan. (PG-13, 93 min.)Sid and Marty Krofft’s Land of the Lost, whichran for three seasons beginning in 1974, chronicledthe adventures of the Marshall family, who becametrapped in an alternate universe where stop-motiondinosaurs battled it out with a race of lizard-mendubbed the Sleestak, and a furry little primate namedChaka pulled double duty as comic relief and narrativelinchpin. The show was wildly imaginative, gamelyacted, decidedly low-tech, and above all cool. So whatto make of this bloated, noisy, and decidedly uncoolremake by avowed Land of the Lost fan Silberling? Iblame both pop-culture creep (what was once strangeand vaguely subversive is now old hat) and Ferrell,who stars here as the dullish, food-obsessed, MattLauer-hating inventor Dr. Rick Marshall. Ferrell hasbeen spinning his comedic wheels for what seemslike ages now, and his once-entertaining schtick isnow, officially, entering into the land of the lost career.(06/05/2009) – Marc Savlov★ Movies 8, Tinseltown SouthMONSTERS VS. ALIENS D: RobLetterman, Conrad Vernon; with the voices of ReeseWitherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, PaulRudd, Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland. (PG, 94 min.)In the animated Monsters vs. Aliens, Susan (voicedby Witherspoon) is struck by an errant meteor onthe morning of her wedding and morphs into a fivestories-tallbridezilla. The government quickly whisksher away to a containment center, where Susan –now called Ginormica – makes reluctant friends witha whole host of monsters, which is where the filmfinally has some fun. The film filters the fantasticalplot doodlings of those campy sci-fi classics of yorethrough the modern formula for animated pictures.It’s a shame the balance didn’t tip more in thedirection of the former, because there is somethingrather dopily sweet in its story of a misfit band ofmonsters unleashed from quarantine to defend Earthfrom an alien invader. The misfits, as ever, must takea back seat to the morality, and the result trafficsin rote truisms that are admirable but perfunctory.(03/27/2009) – Kimberley Jones★★ Movies 8MY SISTER’S KEEPER D: NickCassavetes; with Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric, AbigailBreslin, Sofia Vassilieva, Evan Ellingson, Alec Baldwin, JoanCusack, Thomas Dekker. (PG-13, 109 min.)Anyone who watched his 2004 melodrama TheNotebook knows Cassavetes is not a man to leave aspot of sap untapped, and in My Sister’s Keeper, hepulls out a very big drill indeed. After years of enduringpainful and invasive procedures to prolong thelife of her cancer-stricken sister (Vassilieva), AnnaFitzgerald (Breslin) is suing her parents (Diaz andPatric) for her medical emancipation. The film worksbest as a portrait of a family at war, with cancer andeach other; there’s very little meat on the bone ofthe legal subplot, and it seems to only intermittentlyhold the attention of Cassavetes and his co-writerJeremy Leven. My Sister’s Keeper is unfocused,pat, and predictable, in plot and dialogue, but theactors are so likable that when two characters pusha box of Kleenex back and forth, one can’t helpbut sniffle in tandem. Unsubtleties be damned, ourdefenses fall. Meanwhile, Cassavetes’ reign asthe go-to waterworks man remains uncontested.(06/26/2009) – Kimberley Jones★★★■Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar Park, HillCountry Galleria, CM Round Rock, Southpark Meadows,Highland, Gateway, Lakeline, Tinseltown North,Tinseltown South, WestgateNEW YORK D: Kabir Khan; with John Abraham,Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Irrfan Khan. (NR, 152min., subtitled)Not reviewed at press time. Filmed in America, thisBollywood movie tells the story of three friends whoselives are thrown into disarray after the 9/11 attacks.(06/26/2009) – Marjorie BaumgartenTinseltown SouthNIGHT AT THE MUSEUM:BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAND: Shawn Levy; with Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson,Hank Azaria, Robin Williams, Christopher Guest, SteveCoogan, Ricky Gervais, Bill Hader, Alain Chabat, JonBernthal. (PG, 105 min.)Director Levy and returning screenwriters RobertBen Garant and Thomas Lennon have moved thissequel’s location from New York’s American Museumof Natural History to the D.C. Smithsonian, but virtuallyevery other aspect of this follow-up was touchedon (manhandled, actually) in the original film. Stilleris again cast as Larry Daley, a night watchmanover ambulatory museum pieces. Azaria’s sinisterEgyptian overlord, Kahmunrah, schemes to rule theworld. Allying himself with Ivan the Terrible (Guest),Napoleon Bonaparte (Chabat), and a black-and-whiteAl Capone (Bernthal), Kahmunrah finds Daley andpals, chief among them a sassy Amelia Earhart(Adams), considerably more of a challenge to conquerthan pyramid-building. The film has what feelslike hundreds of hours of mindless noise and comicCGI chaos but only a handful of moments worth ofreal laughter. Much of that comes from Azaria, whoproves yet again that he’s a master of fully immersivecomic genius. (05/29/2009)★ Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar Park, Lakeline,Tinseltown North, Tinseltown South– Marc SavlovOBSESSED D: Steve Shill; with Idris Elba,Beyoncé Knowles, Ali Larter, Bruce McGill, JerryO’Connell, Christine Lahti. (PG-13, 95 min.)You can never underestimate the Americanmoviegoers’ appetite for a juicy catfight. Obsessedunspools like one long tease for the girl-on-girlwrestling we know will eventually come. Until thatclimactic point (and even during it), Obsessed is aroutine mash-up of Fatal Attraction, Disclosure, andThe Hand That Rocks the Cradle in which happily marriedasset manager Derek (Elba) is sexually harassedby beautiful office temp Lisa (Larter). Of course, thedumb lug never tells his wife, Sharon (Knowles), orthe company’s human resources department aboutLisa’s inappropriate attentions, so by the time he discoversjust how bat shit crazy she really is, Lisa hasalready invaded his away-from-office life. Beyoncé’sObjectifiedObjectified (2009) D: Gary Hustwit. (NR, 75 min.)AIGA Design Series. This film, which premiered inAustin during this year’s South by Southwest FilmFestival, is by the director who made Helvetica, aprevious festival hit about the typographic font. Thefocus of his new documentary is on the complexrelationship human beings have with manufacturedobjects. @Alamo Ritz, Monday-Wednesday, 7pm.Sasha Fierce alter ego unveils itself in the film’sfinal battle. Fierce/Sharon manages this feat in highheels, to boot, while Lisa is barefoot in a T-shirtand underpants. Obsessed delivers in its limitedway, even though we know exactly what to expect.(05/01/2009) – Marjorie Baumgarten★★ Movies 8THE PROPOSAL D: Anne Fletcher; withbetween Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally, andSandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Mary Steenburgen, CraigT. Nelson, Betty White, Denis O’Hare, Malin Akerman, OscarNuñez, Aasif Mandvi. (PG-13, 107 min.)Only very rarely do romantic comedies reinventthe wheel, which is why whole decades passedEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. At best,when we queue up for the latest studio romanticcomedy, we can hope for a curve ball or two (hencethe comic-relief bit player, sassy grandparent, andembarrassingly public avowal of love, all featuredin The Proposal). When you strip all that away, whatyou’re left with is two deeply charismatic lead performers.Bullock plays the Canadian-born MargaretTate, an all-work and no-play literary editor who, whenthreatened with deportation, bullies her long-sufferingassistant Andrew (Reynolds) into a marriage of convenience.Fletcher demonstrates with The Proposalthat she can put together a funny, able romanticcomedy that is a cut above, but no more. Still, thoseleads are awfully likable, and if The Proposal doesn’treinvent the wheel, merrily we roll along nonetheless.(06/19/2009) – Kimberley Jones★★★■Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo DrafthouseVillage, Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar Park, HillCountry Galleria, CM Round Rock, Southpark Meadows,Highland, Gateway, Lakeline, Tinseltown North,Tinseltown South, WestgateRACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN D:Andy Fickman; with Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino,AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig, Ciarán Hinds, GarryMarshall. (PG, 99 min.)This third Witch Mountain outing is essentially thesame stop ’n’ go chase film as its predecessors, butall things considered, it’s not half-bad. Dwayne “Don’tCall Me the Rock” Johnson, who appears to be followingIce Cube’s lead in his lateral career move fromnarcissistic, violent cartoon character to goofy, familyfriendlycartoon character, is spot-on as Jack Bruno,a self-doubting former racer and current Vegas cabbiewho, with an assist from discredited but still, like,totally hot astrophysicist Dr. Alex Friedman (Gugino)saves the planet and the tweenage ETs (Robb andLudwig, dialogue-coached, it would seem, by StephenHawking). Edited with zero tolerance for boredom andfeaturing a typical Disney self-empowerment morality,this race is entertaining and patently inoffensivematinee fare for kids 12 and younger and their adultoverlords. (03/20/2009)– Marc Savlov★★★■Movies 8