A Tale Of "Wonder"

Wonder (2017)

Rated PG

Starring Jacob Tremblay, Izabela Vidovic, Owen Wilson, Julia Roberts, Mandy Patinkin

Directed by Stephen Chbosky

The Story:

Auggie (Tremblay) is a little kid who is about to embark upon his greatest adventure: he's going to public school for the first time in his life. The facial deformities that he was born with have been fairly well fixed and hidden over the first part of his life thanks to his parents who were there for him and homeschooled him. But now it's time for Auggie to branch out and see if the real world will accept him or reject him.

So if you saw the trailers, you hopefully got the misty eye or the lump in your throat as it hit all the cliche notes that a movie like this is going for.

The movie will not disappoint you.

Cliche after cliche, note after note, this film ticks off every block that you're expecting to see in a coming of age dramedy about a little boy who fits in nowhere but at home, and yet has a profound impact on everyone around him.

The greatest strength of this movie is they realized that telling Auggie's story might get a bit redundant after 90 minutes of over and over, cliche after cliche of what Auggie is dealing with.

So in the wisest move ever, the movie shifts off of Auggie and instead tells side stories that run parallel (and have flashbacks) to life with Auggie in in. Friends. Family. Those that have known him forever and those that are just getting to know him.

Again, you know the road they are going down from the moment the movie starts, but it's still an enjoyable road nonetheless.

Final Grade:  B+

Criminal "Masterminds" Indeed!

Masterminds (2016)

Rated PG-13

Starring Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Leslie Jones

Directed by Jared Hess

The Story:

In 1997, David Ghantt (Galifianakis) pulled off one of the largest bank heists in American history when he robbed the Loomis Fargo armored car company of $17 million dollars. This is pretty much his story, and it's mostly all true.

Ghantt meets the lovely Kelly (Wiig) and he is so smitten with her that he would do anything. When Kelly leaves the company, Ghantt is depressed until she contacts him again about the possibility of robbing Loomis of all that money just sitting in the vault.

Ghantt agrees, and becomes the inside man that gets the money and passes it along to Kelly and Steve (Wilson), the brains behind the operation. They take the money, send David to Mexico with a few thousand dollars to lay low, and then plan to cut the guy loose while they keep the rest.

There are a few laugh out loud moments, but for the most part, this is a retelling of a true story that punches up some of the humorous aspects of what really happened, and pads the rest with creative story devices and characters to add meat to the story.

Sudeikis pumps some much needed fun and energy when he arrives as a hitman that is to eliminate Ghantt, but even that doesn't go right.

Nothing that reinvents the comedy genre, but it's harmless enough, and gets a lot of extra mileage from an enjoyable cast of characters.

Final Grade:  C+

The Trilogy Concludes..."Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb"

Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb (2014)

Rated PG

Starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Rebel Wilson, Dan Stevens, Rami Malek

Directed by Shawn Levy

The Story:

The Tablet that brings the exhibits to life at the Museum of Natural History is beginning to corrode. If Larry (Stiller) hopes to fix the problem, he needs to get the tablet and some of his exhibits to London to see if they can unravel the secret of how the tablet works before it is too late.

Eight years ago, Night at the Museum arrived, and it was pretty cute, good family fun with a nice supporting cast making the exhibits.

Five years ago, they brought forth a sequel, and aside from remember seeing it, it was rather boring and lackluster.

Needless to say, I was surprised that they made a third installment in the franchise, but after seeing it, I'm glad they did.

It brought back much of the fun and enjoyment from the first one, and allowed the movie to correct the mistakes of the second film, and let the franchise go out on a high note.

I'm assuming it will be the end of the franchise as everyone is older now, and with Robin Williams passing, they are missing a key part of the team.

Traveling to London allows them to introduce a whole new cast of characters and creates a villainous foil in Sir Lancelot (Stevens) who may just unwittingly cause all of the exhibits to cease living after shortly coming to life for the first time.

If you liked the previous installment(s), I think you'll find the conclusion to their story a fitting end to the adventures.

Final Grade: C+/B-

When Movies Like "Are You Here" Forget The ?... It's Never A Good Sign

Are You Here (2013)

Rated R

Starring Owen Wilson, Zack Galifianakis, Amy Poehler, Laura Ramsey

Written and Directed by Matthew Weiner

The Story:

Ben (Galifianakis) finds out his father has died and he takes his best friend, Steve (Wilson), to the funeral and reading of the will.  Ben winds up with the lion's share of the inheritance much to the displeasure of his sister (Poehler) and step-mother (Ramsey). Ben decides he wants to give his buddy the house and property, and Steve decides he wants to be with the stepmom.

And this goes on, and on, and on...

For nearly 2 hours!

What's the almost-universal first rule of comedy movies?

90 minute running time.

Or be funny.

Preferably both.

This one fails on both accounts.

Waaaaay too long.

I think this happens when you have a writer who is the director and director who is the writer.

Don't be afraid to cut some of the less important scenes that drag things down.

You can always come back with a director's cut later.

The other bad part... it's just not that funny.

There's a few things that bring a chuckle or a smile, but otherwise... no.

Which is weird.  You've got a funny cast assembled.

It seems like Galifianakis is simply playing to his Hangover character a bit.

Owen Wilson seems to have signed on simply because he gets to hang out with naked actresses every five minutes. Reclaiming his Wedding Crashers glory days apparently.

Save your time, and if someone offers "Are You Here," say no thanks.


Final Grade: C-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Nothing in here screams "watch me again." Ever.

"I Spy" With My Little Eye...A Movie That Should Have Been Better

I Spy (2002)

Rated PG-13 for language

Starring Eddie Murphy, Owen Wilson, Famke Janssen, Malcolm McDowell

Directed by Betty Thomas


The Story:

The Switchblade, the US government's newest stealth prototype is stolen by arms dealer Arnold Gundars (McDowell), the government sends in crack spy Alex Scott (Wilson) to save the day.  However, they team him with a professional boxer (Murphy) to help provide his cover, and the two must make sure the plane does not fall into the hands of the enemy.  Surely there will be no problem.

Action comedy. Buddy picture.

You name it, this movie wanted to be it.

The problem, it never amounted to much of anything.

There were bits and flashes of comedic brilliance.

Or an action gag would work very well.

But overall, the movie just sort of drags, never really able to capture any oil/water chemistry between Wilson and Murphy.

It's passable entertainment, but nothing you really need to rush out and watch if you've never seen it, or more likely, haven't seen it in over a decade.

I cannot comment on what connection, if anything besides title alone, that I Spy shares with the television show upon which it was based.  My guess...

Absolutely nothing.

Final Grade: C-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Low to watch again... No for the purchase.

An Idea Most Fowl... "Free Birds"

Free Birds (2013)
Rated PG

Starring Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Amy Poehler, George Takei

Directed by Jimmy Hayward

The Story:

Reggie (Wilson) is a turkey who cannot make his flock understand the truth about their fate.  Enter Jake (Harrelson), a turkey on a mission:
To go back to the first Thanksgiving and get turkeys off the menu.  Using an experimental time machine named S.T.E.V.E. (Takei), the birds take flight and wind up in Plymouth.  With the help of the local population, these two birds must outwit the pilgrims who want them dead...and cooked to a delicious ending!  Who will succeed?

To my knowledge, this is the first full-fledged animation venture from Reel FX Creative Studios.

And for the most part, they do a decent job with what they produced.

The animation looks lush and vibrant and the voice acting is decent.

Basically, it's an okay story that will entertain the kids for 90 minutes and won't sap all of the willpower of the adults who are watching.

The problem with that, we've grown accustomed to Pixar and the other animation studios really stepping up their game in recent years to deliver masterpiece after masterpiece.

When we receive something lesser...

Somehow we feel cheated.

So I'm looking forward to their next film, I just hope they work a little harder on the script.

Final Grade: C

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Sorry, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will remain the only film in rotation so far...

Looking For A New Job? Sign Up For "The Internship"

Not sure what the film is about?

Google it!

The Story:

Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) are two salesmen whose company has folded.  Not sure what to do with their next step in life, Billy gets an idea to try for an internship at Google.  If selected, they will receive full-time jobs when it's all over.  The only problem, these guys are old, slow and not tech-savvy.  However, they could be just the outside-of-the-box thinkers that Google is looking for.

There are some movies you just dread going into.  There's no way it's going to be any good/funny.

This was that movie for me.

Reteaming with Owen Wilson for the first time since Wedding Crashers in 2005, I've got to admit, the two make a great team.

Vince Vaughn plays...well, himself.

And considering he also wrote the story, well, who knows how to write Vince Vaughn dialogue better than Vince Vaughn?

Nobody!

He's got the slick salesman routine down to a science.

Which means, this is going to be much like every other Vince Vaughn performance: you'll either love it, or hate it.

Me?

I love the guy.

He's a hustler, with a heart.

Wilson gets the romantic lead portion of the story, so it's kind of nice that they were able to pull off the fish out of water and a romance, but it all wasn't centered on one character.

By allowing the two storylines to work side by side, nothing feels as forced as comedies or romantic comedies often do.

I mean, to have a guy fighting to land a job and a girl all at the same time, the imagination gets stretched a bit thin on that plot.

But by dividing and conquering the plot, it works, and works really well.

Naturally, the guys have a lot to learn, but they've also got a bit to offer the younger kids that they are teamed with as well.

The movie is both rated and unrated.  I watched the rated version, and I don't think the storyline would be served any better by adding gratuitous nudity to the mix.

At the end of the day, it turned out to be a pretty good movie.

And a great commercial to make you want to work for Google!

Final Grade: B-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor:  I could watch it again, but not in any hurry to own it.

Is There Anything More Romantic Than "Midnight in Paris" ?

Life was so much better back then...

The Story:

Gil (Owen Wilson) is a successful Hollywood writer, but he very much wants to try his hand at writing a novel.  He travels to Paris on a vacation with his girlfriend Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her parents (Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy).  Gil loves Paris and wants to ditch Hollywood and move to Paris, but Inez is dead-set against it.  They bump into Paul (Michael Sheen), an old acquaintance of Inez, and he wants them to hang out with him and tour Paris.  Gil isn't interested, and finds an excuse to ditch the party.  He wanders through Paris and at midnight, a car pulls up and he is asked to come along for a ride.  The next thing Gil realizes is that he is hanging out with Cole Porter (Yves Heck) and the Fitzgeralds (Alison Pill and Tom Hiddleston).  Maybe he's drunk, but Gil is finding life in the Roaring 20s everything he thought it would be.  How long will this time travel experience last?

Well, I have to admit, this may be one of the first Woody Allen movies that I've actually watched.  Looking over his prolific career, the man makes about a movie a year, normally as writer/director, or at least director.

I think I was turned off by Woody Allen by his performance in Scenes From a Mall.  It wasn't that funny, therefore it's easier to just chuck his career and move on.

Now that I see he didn't write or direct that movie, I may have to rethink my position on Mr. Allen's career.

Eventually.

: )

Now, back to the movie at hand.

This movie was very charming, if not a directly a paint-by-the-numbers formula.  You can tell immediately just by their reactions that Gil and Inez are not meant to be together.

That said, there's nothing wrong with following a formula, provided you do it effectively, and this movie does so.

The real question is, how will Gil figure this out?  Will he stay in the 20s and live out his life, retroactively?  Or will he learn that the only true golden age is the one he lives in right now?

It is fun to watch Gil put the pompous Paul in his place with facts about Paris that he is gathering first-hand on a nightly basis by hanging out with the actual players.

Good fun all around.

Final Grade: B

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: A definite yes to rewatchability, and yes if the price is right.  I've got a million other movies to purchase, so prices and titles have to be aligned perfectly. : )