Review: Greg Mottola's "Paul" (2011)

Greg Mottola previously helmed "Adventureland" and "Superbad", and with some similar humor, created "Paul". Greg Mottola is not a very moral, or modest man. He lets the monster off the leash in each of his films, allowing for crude sexual humor, mocking religion and law, and embracing the breaking of the law with a heavy emphasis on drugs and alcohol. In "Superbad" it was a crude film about teenagers chasing sex and alcohol. In "Paul" you get a couple of adults, an alien, and a bag of drugs and out comes a see-through comedy with minor humor shown in each of the movie's previews, allowing for no real enjoyment. The puns on law enforcement and religion is also a page frequently used, and I was convinced this movie was going to be something special, until the same old jokes which are pouring out of all the D-list flicks are run dry.

Seth Rogen provided us with some slightly funny moments as the alien's vocals, but just too tainted by the not-so creative team writing the movie. I keep hoping for a funny Simon Pegg / Nick Frost film since "Shaun of the Dead" but I am constantly let down.

There aren't any scenes which were striking to me, nothing more than a couple of losers, with a loser CG character, a loser story, with a loser direction. All is lost.

Box this film up and send it into the $1 bin at Walmart, where it will be forever. If you have the chance to see this movie, don't. You will feel less defiled, and there are plenty of things you could better spend your time on, like clubbing your toes with a hammer.

"Paul"

4.5 / 10

Review: "Battle: Los Angeles" (2011)

I found a picture from the film that accurately describes my reaction to it.

If you thought "Independence Day" was bad, this has broke new ground for you. This movie is one giant "welcome to erf" audio clip of Will Smith. This movie is anything but subtle, anything but interesting, and anything but original. I wasn't sold on this movie sucking too bad until I saw Michelle Rodriguez's face in the movie trailers, then I knew. I saw it because I wanted to experience the American male's desire for bullet's and explosions. Boy was there bullets and explosions. It is just too bad nothing that happens makes me care or believe anything the movie is telling me.

Everything the movie introduces continuously makes the whole project worse. Every scene is worse than the previous. There isn't a single character developed, not a single good scene or shot in the film. The action is simply bad. The director spent too much time in boot camp and not enough time thinking about how to translate "real" to film. The film felt too adamant about portraying a "real" soldier instead of concentrating on filming a decent movie. This movie seemed to exist for the sake of creating video games. If you could find a youtube video of a 4 year old with a water gun, it would be a better movie than this one. This movie was embarrassing. There is nothing good to be had. If someone asked me to create a list of the top 1,000 alien movies, this would not be on it.

"Battle: Los Angeles"

2.5 / 10

Review: John Wells' "The Company Men" (2010)

John Wells makes his directorial debut with "The Company Men" in 2010. The film stars Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, and Chris Cooper, a story about corporate downsizing and the greed behind powerful business owners. Ben Affleck is one man who suffers from a rich man's panic button.

The film's most interesting man is Tommy Lee Jones' character, an aging wealthy man, contemplating morality in big business's decisions. Had Tommy Lee Jones not played in the film, I suspect a very large weight would have been added to Affleck, it would have crushed him, and the film. Affleck again seems to barely hold his own.

I think the film was a good one, and could have landed in the pile of most Hollywood productions about 'evil big business'. John Wells does a fine job carrying the film, giving us a few glimpses of characters with some decent development. I do think however, the character developments in the film could have made this film much more relevant. I don't feel like I really knew Ben Affleck's character very well, the story just tried to show me what it was he was doing instead of showing me WHO he was and WHO he is as he is doing things.

The timing of the film will make this film better now than it may be in 10 years, since it is so easy to hate big business right now. I would not venture to say this film is a must-see, but rather a film to see if there isn't much at the local Redbox to choose from.

"The Company Men"

6 / 10

Review: Michel Gondry's "The Green Hornet" (2011)

In 2004 Michel Gondry directed "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind", a very good film, maybe Jim Carrey's best film. Then moved on to Dave Chappelle's Block Party" in 2005 and "Be Kind Rewind" in 2008 for a couple of less significant projects. In 2008 he wrote and directed "Tokyo!", a film with mixed reviews, with bizarre written all over it.

When I think about Michel Gondry and his filmography I am fixated on 'Eternal Sunshine' only. I would like to think a director who basically starts with this film would move on to bigger and better things, but time is proving me wrong with so many examples. "The Green Hornet" was one of these examples.

"The Green Hornet" stares Seth Rogen, and as much as the cast tries, it just cannot make up for the horrendous story and choppy cinematography. Michel Gondry appears to have entered into the longest line in Hollywood, the sellout line.

The film is absurd. It has no identity. Its funny, not. Its an action, eh. Its a drama, not. The film is just terribly boring. It is hard to find the words to describe my thoughts for this film. If you absolutely hate "Rush Hour", this movie might make you change your mind on a day you are forced to pick between them.

To think this movie was released in 3D, just proves the goal of everyone involved in creating this pile of dung. They wanted in on what was "cool", taking from everything new and successful to make a Razzie worthy film. If I were going to say one good thing about this movie, it would be... that Seth Rogen hid behind a mask for most of the worst scenes, allowing me to lie to myself, "its not him".

"The Green Hornet"

3.5 / 10