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April 18, 2012

Movie Review ~ The Lucky One

1
by Joe Movie Review • Tags: Blythe, brothers, Danner, Efron, Ferguson, Hicks, logo, Lucky, Nicholas, One, Schilling, Scott, Sparks, Studio, Taylor, warner, Zac

The Facts:

Synopsis: A Marine travels to North Carolina after serving three tours in Iraq and searches for the unknown woman he believes was his good luck charm during the war.

Stars: Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, Blythe Danner

Director: Scott Hicks

Rated: PG-13

Running Length: 101 minutes

Random Crew Highlight:  Teasing Boy ~ Cole Jackson

TMMM Score: (6.5/10)

Review:  By now, there is a formula to a movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel.  Add one Hollywood hunk and one earthy female to a southern hamlet (preferably one of the Carolinas), toss in a hidden secret and stir.  Bring the two leads together by spending the first hour keeping them apart and then bask in the glow that their love emanates.  Don’t forget to kill someone off before the end of the picture and you have a Sparks Soufflé ready to consume.

The Lucky One is the latest page-to-screen adaptation of a Sparks tome and if it ultimately goes down as one of the better films to be made from his material there are more than a few bumps along the way.  The central conceit of the film hinges on a BIG SECRET that a) isn’t all that big and b) if revealed would have made the movie ten minutes long.  It’s a rare movie that can take this BIG SECRET angle and not stumble…in fact, I don’t remember one in recent memory that made it work.

Logan is a marine returning from Afghanistan with another mission to accomplish: track down the woman in a picture he found in the rubble he feels protected him.  Feeling uneasy in his home surroundings he walks (yes, walks) from Colorado to North Carolina to find the picture lady because evidentially taking the MegaBus wouldn’t look good on film.  When he arrives he quickly locates Beth (Schilling) and instead of telling her what he crossed numerous states to say, he instead clams up and decides it’s better to work for her dog kennel business, buddy up with her son, charm her Grandma (Danner), and stare down her menacing ex (Ferguson).  Unfortunately, one viewing of the trailer tells you all this and more so best to turn the channel if you are planning on seeing it.

Touted as a departure from the teen fare Efron is known for, I’d say that Efron faces an uphill battle by tackling a role of a troubled Marine.  His demons are never really explored…the movie seems to indicate the only thing that has haunted him from the war is not being able to get back and find the woman in the picture sooner.  That gives a bit of short shrift to the wartime experience but war is really not the focus of the film.

Efron and Schilling do create some sparks between them and they seem to be mostly well matched.  He has the lazy, squinty, smoldering eyes to her wide saucer peepers…although maybe he just squints because her teeth are almost cartoonishly white.  While Schilling has an elegant beauty (I could see Meg Ryan playing this part had it been made in 1992) her Beth never meets a pair of short shorts or gauzy cotton shirts/dresses she can’t wiggle herself into.  Although to be fair most everyone in the audience was waiting for Efron to wiggle out of his shirt and pants.  When the two finally do couple it’s the most mature section of the movie and feels a bit out of place.

I saw the film as one with peaks and valleys.  Right when you think it’s going off the tracks it rights itself but then quickly veers dangerously close to parody again.  There’s a scene between Beth and Logan in her garden that seems to have been excised from a different movie entirely.  While I wasn’t totally sold on Efron’s performance I wouldn’t say the movie is poorly acted.  It’s a good looking film that benefits greatly from its casual North Carolina setting that makes nearly every movie filmed there look good.

Music plays a big role in this here film and for my money director Hicks (Shine, No Reservations) adds 2 too many montages set to a light indie rock score.  Was there no other way to show that time passes and things get accomplished than to pull out some Brandi Carlile?

Providing good support to our two glassy eyed leads is Ferguson as her ex, managing to turn a stock character into one with a little bit of depth and an arc.  It’s not Shakespeare but it easily could have been a one-note role that Ferguson instead breathes some life in…keep your eyes on him during a church scene…an entire subplot is told just in his face.  Danner is one of the lovelier ‘women-of-a-certain-age’ in Hollywood and instills the right amount of humor and warmth that she needs to pass on to her real-life daughter Gwyneth Paltrow.  (By the way and for the record, I’ve met Danner and she’s more beautiful in person, if possible)

So, as all Sparks movies do, this one leads up to a tragedy that’s not as big as in some of his previous works.  At this point the filmmakers must know that audiences unfamiliar with the book but familiar with Sparks will expect this so it almost seemed to me they tried to throw us off base as to who the reaper would be coming for.  While the very first line of one character practically screams “I’m-a gonna be dead by the time the credits roll!” you’ll probably not figure out how the movie will tie itself up. I think they cheated a bit but all is fair in love, war, and Sparks.

At the end of the day it’s not a totally wasted time in the movie theater for a romantic drama (like February’s awful The Vow) because there’s no denying the chemistry of the leads, the easy-going flow of the film, or the genial harmlessness of it all.

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April 18, 2012

The Silver Bullet ~ “Looper” Teaser

by Joe Silver Bullet - Trailer Park • Tags: Blunt, District, Film, FilmDistrict, Gordon, Joseph, Levitt, logo, Looper, Rian, Studio, Willis

Synopsis: In the year 2042, a mob hitman assassinates targets that arrive from the future of 2072. For him it’s just a job… till he receives a new target: himself from the future.

Release Date: September 28, 2012

Thoughts:  Now here’s the proper way to make a trailer.  Give the audience some quality visuals, tease us with a bit of the plot, and then let ‘er rip with a great montage of the action sequences to come.  This movie was not on my radar at all but it’s absolutely moved to the top of my list when it is released in the fall.  I love the futuristic look (don’t the faces look digitally altered?) and I do guiltily enjoy a good big screen butt-kickin’ courtesy of Willis.  The premise sounds original, the stars are quality, and the timing is right for this to be a big hit.  Check it out and keep your eyes out for this one!

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April 18, 2012

Down From the Shelf ~ A Chorus Line

by Joe Down from the Shelf • Tags: Attenborough, Bennett, Borges, Chorus, columbia, Douglas, Embassy, English, Films, Frederick, Line, logo, Reed, Studio

The Facts:

Synopsis: Hopefuls try out before a demanding director for a part in a new musical.

Stars: Michael Douglas, Terrence Mann, Vicki Frederick, Alyson Reed, Yamil Borges, Cameron English

Director: Richard Attenborough

Rated: PG-13

Running Length: 113 minutes

TMMM Score: (7/10)

Review:  When A Chorus Line opened on Broadway in 1975 it was fresh off a phenomenally successful off-Broadway run and took NYC and the theater world by storm.  It’s one of the most vibrant musicals that still endures today – it speaks to anyone that ever had a dream of being onstage whether you were the lead or in the chorus.  Digging deeper, it spoke to anyone that loved and lost, felt they were different, or just wanted a chance to prove their worth.  It’s one of my favorite shows and the music and memory live on even though its lights are dimmed on The Great White Way.

Far from the disaster it was painted to be, the film adaptation of A Chorus Line is still a significant miss of an opportunity to put to film what was so palpable onstage.  Maybe that’s the problem…the beauty of live theater is that you can’t duplicate the feeling or the performance you experience by having the actors right in front of you.  Movie musicals have always suffered from that suspension of disbelief and it’s ever so evident here.

The original director/choreographer Michael Bennett was announced to direct the film version but left due to creative difference with the production company.  Rumor has it that Bennett realized the musical may be hard to bring to the screen so he wanted to make the movie about the casting of the movie version of A Chorus Line.  Still with me?  I think that was a bit too meta for the early 80’s and Bennett’s idea was (probably wisely) scrapped.  British director Attenborough was brought on board along with then-hot choreographer Jeffrey Hornaday fresh from his success with Flashdance (which, once and for all is NOT a musical!).  The problem right off the bat was that by this time A Chorus Line was ten years old – dance and music had changed in the past decade so the film version suffered some unfortunate updates.  Cheesy 80’s synth music replaced the booming sound of a full Broadway orchestra and Hornaday’s athletic choreography, while well executed, replaced Bennett’s inventive but stagelocked moves.

Then there was the music.  For some reason still not clear some of the better music was jettisoned for more eighties era pop tunes.  Until I saw the live show years after first seeing the movie I wasn’t aware how much was excised in the process of bringing the show to the silver screen.  While replacing the huge central montage of ‘Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love’ with ‘Surprise, Surprise’ was a head-scratcher, it was unforgivable that ‘Let Me Dance for You’ was subbed for ‘The Music and the Mirror’.  Two excellent pieces were removed for songs that pretty much said the exact same thing with similar lyrics…why?  It still makes no sense to me all these years later.  The montage also gave the entire cast more to do and revealed their characters…so while robbing audiences of the song they also short-changed their actors….which may have been a good thing.

A hodge podge is maybe the best way to describe the cast that was assembled by Attenborough and his team.  I think the casting of Douglas was pretty perfect and from there on down the line it was the law of diminishing returns.  Frederick was an OK Sheila but she played Cassie on Broadway so why not use her instead?  It wasn’t as if Reed was any knockout as Cassie.  With her unfortunate asymmetrical bob and even more unfortunate armpit sweat soaked purple leotard she never gives Cassie the fire that made her someone to root for.  Borges was a good choice for Morales but never seemed to decide if she wanted to be a sassy Morales or a defensive Morales…riding that line made a well written character seem smaller than she should have been.  Thankfully there are some standouts here – English’s sweet take on Paul’s monologue hits home where and when it should, Michelle Johnston’s Bebe is genuine, and Audrey Landers scores as Val (though you have to really work hard to screw up her fun/funny number) 

All told, the movie does work when it’s working with the original source material – where it tends to step out of line is when the new pieces are inserted and the show loses its original shape. Who knows if the show could ever have been made into a movie that came close to the vibrancy of the stage version?  So much of the power is derived from moments in the theater that creates electricity and knocks your socks off.

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