Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby

You know a film that has become a huge hit because of it's irreverent and edgy humor has jumped the shark when portions of it are used in a Sunday morning church sermon.

And that very thing happened, last week, at the church I attend. The minister--to a chorus of giggles and guffaws--successfully used a scene from Ricky Bobby to illustrate a point he was making about how some Christians pick and choose how to view Jesus.

In one of the funniest scenes in the movie, Ricky Bobby says a prayer over a semi-formal meal, and addresses it to "Dear sweet baby Jesus." When his shrew-like yet beautiful-on-the-outside wife chastises him for praying to a baby rather than the grown-up Jesus, Ricky Bobby explains the innocent baby image is his favorite way to view Christ, and he will pray to whatever version of The Messiah he wants.

It's a very funny scene. Maybe the funniest in the movie. The problem for me is, it happens too early in the film. The rest of Talladega Nights, for me at least, was a disappointment.


Will Ferrell is consistently funny, and he is terrific in this role. John C. Reilly is great in the supporting role of best friend Cal Naughton, Jr. (Isn't that a great NASCAR name?) And Gary Cole's character, Reese Cole, gets too little screen time. His character was complex and darkly funny.

But, the film fell flat for me after the first hour. I thought it dragged on too long, had too many sub-plots and relied too heavily on redneck-poking for jokes.
My expectations for this movie may have been influenced by the "Oh, my gawd...have you seen Ricky Bobby yet!?!" buzz about the flick.


I expected it would knock my socks off. But, as much as I like Ferrell's comedies, I thought Talladega Nights was only average.

Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story

Dreamer, starring Kurt Russell and Dakota Fanning, is based upon the true story of Mariah's Storm. About a decade ago race horse Mariah's Storm broker her leg, and it was presumed her racing career was done. The leg healed--against incredible odds--and she resumed racing. She even won some big-time races.

You can never count out the heart of a champion, even if the champion is a horse.

Dreamer tells the story of Cale Cole, the daughter of Russell's character, Ben Crane. Ben is a down-and-out former horse farm owner who now trains horses for other people. He's lost almost everything, selling off bits of his land in order to make ends meet. In the process, he's lost a large part of himself. His pride, his focus.

Even his interest in his family.

Even though Cale is young, she recognizes that her father needs something in which to believe. Something that will turn his life back around, and help him regain his confidence. She finds that something in Sonadora, a race horse with a fractured leg. The Cole's take Sonadora in, help her heal and discover she is well enough to race again. The horse overcomes significant odds because she is a champion.

Like Ben Cole.

Dreamer is a wonderful flick. It's tagged a "family movie," and it is a fine movie to see with the kids. But, it stands alone simply as a terrific movie, regardless of genre. Fanning is great, and Russell--as usual--turns in a complete performance.

I think you'll like it.

The Wicker Man

The 2006 version of The Wicker Man arrived in my Netflix box earlier this week.

Let's see...Nic Cage fights chicks who: drink mead, are organized to function like a bee colony, sacrifice people to Nature in hopes of improving the harvest and dress up like woodland creatures for their very special version of Festivas.

I shoulda qued up the 1973 British version, instead.

John Tucker Must Die

Yes...

He must. And it should've happened before the making of this movie.

Little Miss Sunshine

I'm a tad worried to mention much about the plot of Little Miss Sunshine, because it sounds horribly cliche, and not terribly interesting.

Let me try...

A dysfunctional family--each hanging desperately on to some small hope for normalcy--travels across the country in a Mystery Machine look-a-like van so that their daughter can participate in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant.

Yuck. That sounds God-awful.

But it isn't. In fact, Little Miss Sunshine is a very good film that ultimately sends the message that authenticity and originality are important in life.

Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette are parents to Olive, played wonderfully by Abby Breslin. Kinnear works as a D-list motivational speaker, whose "9-Steps to Being a Winner" can't get published because he isn't. Collette's character, Sheryl, is long-suffering and unsure. She knows the family is spiraling into despair, and isn't sure how to stop it.

Olive's older brother, Dwayne, reads, obsessively, books on modern philosophy and is nine-months into a vow of silence. Her grandfather, played wonderfully by Alan Arkin, is in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease. Oh, and he snorts heroin. Daily.

Steve Carell, in a serious, dramatic turn, is Olive's uncle, Frank. Frank recently tried to commit suicide, and is staying with the family while he recovers.

Well, that's at least a little more interesting...

The road trip is really about the group overcoming the obstacles they have placed in their own paths of life, particularly pretenses the family has set up to look like something they aren't. The experience of the Little Miss Sunshine pageant helps them reconsider their place in life, and the importance of authenticity.

Little Miss Sunshine is a bit dark, funny and well written. The dialogue is terrific, and helps make up for some plot events that are a little far-fetched.

Check it out. It's a B- flick.

Seasonal-Affective Pondering

The bah-hum-bugs are lifting:


Sometimes, simple is just fine.

Even in this era of iPods, laptop computers, cell-phones and other digital miracles, bubbles still rock!




Photo by Sean Saguansin (thanks Cara)
The premiere was wonderful, and the story being told was cathartic for the community. Too bad the rest of the country seems not that interested. Check out A Sour Apple Tree for a terrific post on how the flick is faring, and a perspective on how it could be worse.

Associated Press
Former President Ford died this week, and I can't help but think of Chevy Chase. The SNL-guy looked nothing like Ford, but captured something about the man that stuck. To all you future politicos: a "full, free and absolute pardon" might be a nice gesture, but it's a career killer. Don't do it.

I'm no teetotaler. I'm just tired of the holiday stories about Christmas-night bar fights and kids being killed by drunk drivers.

I think the after-Xmas blues have just returned...

Whatever Happened To...Peter Billingsley

Like "Yo! Adrienne!" and "I'm walkin' here," some lines are so classic they immediately identify the movie in which they were spoken. Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story, had this memorable gem:


"Only, I didn't say: "Fudge.'"

Simple. Brilliant.


A Christmas Story--my favorite Christmas-themed film--is a terrific story about hope and desire, and finding satisfaction even when one comes up just a bit short. Ralphie, played wonderfully by Billingsley, is at that uncomfortable age for kids. Tweeners, I guess they are called these days. Too young to understand an adult world, and too old to be completely innocent and naive. Ralphie's dream of getting a Red Ryder BB gun represents the same wish each of us have, really. That job, that significant other, that best friend--whatever--that will make our lives more complete. The secret is, we never reach the goal. Or, if we do, we quickly shoot our eye out.

Wishing for it is always more fun that getting it.

Peter Billingsley, best friends with Vince Vaughn for years, works currently as a film producer. Recently, Billingsley produced The Break-Up, and is in pre-production now with Iron Man, which will star Robert Downey, Jr.

Oh, yeah...Merry Christmas, from the Film Geek family. Don't shoot your eye out!

Yeah But, About That Surf Board...

Arriving on Earth in June, 2007!

20th Century Fox
I didn't care for the first FF flick, but I'm really looking forward to the sequel, which will feature this guy. Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer.

Fanboys can read the detail here.

Lady In The Water

Some months ago, I commented on what I think is a tendency to judge Lady In The Water writer-director M. Night Shyamalan solely on the fact that he hit one out of the park early in his career. One of his first films, The Sixth Sense was an instant classic, and movie-goers couldn't help but compare his follow-ups to the "I see dead people" flick.

That's a shame. Because I think Shyamalan is the Hitchcock of our era.

Directors should be judged by how well they tell the story, and Shyamalan tells the story of Lady In The Water with a subtle grace and delicate pace. The story is about grace, after all, and finding one's purpose in life. Despite being told in what is essentially a children's fable format, I found the movie interesting and well developed, and taken to the level of near-greatness by the wonderful acting talent of Paul Giamatti.

Giammati's Cleveland Heep is a former doctor turned apartment superintendent. He works slowly and methodically, providing upkeep for the misfits who occupy his building. Heep is rather a misfit himself; after his family was murdered, Heep buried himself in obscurity and simplicity in order to hide.

From his emotions, and from his memories.

Story, the sea creature Giamatti finds in his pool one late night, is sent to inspire a writer (played nicely by Shyamalan, in yet another Hitchcock-like walk-on) who lives in the building. During the course of her mission she becomes endangered and is cared for by Giamatti, and many of the misfits who rent in his apartment building. Focused on a common goal, each finds the strength and resolve to assist Story in her journey back home to The Blue World.

Each figures out, as a result, his or her purpose in life.

Lady In The Water is based on a children's story Shyamalan told his own daughters. And it feels like a children's fable. But I think that's appropriate, given the premise. Children, in all their innocence and freshness, seem at times drawn to a purpose. Simplicity allows them to dream, and to aspire. Adults--heavily burdened by things like the Christmas season rush, boring jobs and overwhelming goals--too often lose our purpose. We adults forget, I think, to live. Shyamalan reminds us to live through Lady In The Water.

With grace, and with dignity. But always with purpose.

Clerks II

I've been a fan of Kevin Smith's work since the first Clerks, back in 1994. His movies aren't brilliant works of cinema. His best movie (Chasing Amy, in my opinion) his worst (that mall-rats-something-or-other) and all in between share several things in common: a community of common characters, each trying to figure out their identity, and their path in life; incredible dialogue which always stands out as the best part of the flick; and the simultaneous celebration of and poking fun at all-things-geeky.

Oh, and profanity! Lot of it, used in wonderfully funny, inventive ways.

The original Clerks spoke to a whole generation of people, many of whom identified with the characters Randal and Dante. We--especially we males--understood the relationship of the two friends, and what the witty banter really meant. Breaking balls is a guy's way to show affection for another guy, after all, and Randal, Dante, Jay and Silent Bob could break balls with style. We also identified with the more subtle parts of Clerks, like how the guys were stuck in a dead end job at the Quick Stop, working for low pay while day after day passes with little hope for a better gig any time soon. We men tend to compare our standing and our position to other men of similar age, even though we say we don't.

We do.

And we know when we're in a loser phase. Knowing it is the easy part; getting unstuck is much harder.

Clerks II is the movie where, ten years after we first meet them, Dante and Randal get unstuck.

It's another brilliant Kevin Smith movie. For an excellent review, check out Jackie's comments from when he saw the movie back in the summer. He's dead-on right about the flick.

Jackie points out the sentimentality of Clerks II, and I agree that it is much more sentimental than the first movie. And most of Smith's work, really. That's because the movie is about transition. All his other movies--hell, even Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back--was about being in the moment. Characters were trying to work through problems and relationships in the here-and-now, like good twenty-somethings should. Kids in their 20s are invincible, aren't they? Typically they have little reason to worry about the future.

At least they think so...

The 30s, though, brings it. And hard. The realization that the lives of others around you are changing. The awareness that you may be more than a bit behind your high school's valedictorian in education and achievement. The understanding that you will not always be able to hang out for hours a day with your best friend, goofin' on geeks and talking about chicks.

Life happens. Often before you realize it.

Clerks II is damn funny. The dialogue is tight and the peripheral characters--you know, Silent Bob, Jay, and all the guys like Jason Lee and Ben Affleck who always do cameos in Smith flicks--were used perfectly. Not overdone, but just enough. But, as Jackie pointed out, it's the sentiment of the film that makes Clerks II a real surprise.