Med City Movie Guy

This “Proposal” can’t be refused

In The Proposal, Sandra Bullock’s new romantic comedy,  the star of Speed and Miss Congeniality plays a successful NYC editor whose visa has expired and, if she cannot convince her browbeaten assistant to marry her and thereby give her the gift of citizenship, will be about as welcome here as a taxman at the Rochesterfest Million Dollar Hole-in-One Shootout.

     The moment Margaret Tate (Bullock) is spotted entering the office her minions take to their keyboards pecking heads-up IMs to each other like “the broom has landed.” But Karma catches-up to the take-no-prisoners executive one afternoon when she faces deportation back to Canada. Thinking quickly, she ropes her unappreciated adjunct and soon-to-be anchor-spouse Andrew Paxton (Adventureland’s Ryan Reynolds) who has just once condition: that she publish his manuscript and promote him to editor.
     There’s just one problem. The government agent in charge of the case suspects the union is a sham and the two have just one weekend to get to know each other and pass the immigration interview. Conveniently, it’s the weekend Ryan is traveling to Alaska for his grandmother’s 90th birthday and while there, his mother has a great idea: “Why not get married right here and now?”
     The critics were not kind to The Proposal, perhaps because it is as predictable as it is cute. But the plot of a NASCAR race is pretty predictable too (uhhmm, the cars just go around in a circle) and fans still flock to them. And flock to The Proposal they did, sending it to the top of the weekend box office chart besting current blockbusters like The Hangover and Up while pushing aside fellow debutante Year One, the disappointing comedy starring Jack Black and Michael Cera.
     Bullock and Reynolds are always bankably charming, and Mary Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson, as Andrew’s parents, make for an interesting team. But the film relies (maybe too much) on Grandma Annie and local phenom “Ramone” for most of its laughs and sometimes the gags are strained if not embarrassing. For example, Annie (Betty White) is an Earth worshipper and during one of her forest chants, Bullock joins in with her flav of Lil Jon’s “Get Low” which is funny if you can buy a 45-year-old white woman crunking. And after the exotic dance by Ramone (The Office’s Oscar Nunez) you’ll wish there were more “traditional” comedy scenes like the one where a bald eagle snatches the family’s little pooch. There aren’t.
     Still, as a date-film, this proposal can’t be refused.   

  
  
2 Honks
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, nudity and language.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810012112/trailer

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Year One

Some chuckles. Could have been so much better. What did you think?

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Eddie Murphy, funny again ... Imagine that

In Imagine That, the new family comedy starring Eddie Murphy, a little girl’s imaginary princess friends predict future events like Iran’s spurious election and dubious recount—no big prognostication; Minnesotans had seen that too. But if they’re right about additional Ahmadinejad absentee ballots turning-up in the trunk of an election director’s car that would be freaky.

     Financial wizard Evan Danielson (Eddie Murphy) has met his match. Two of them, actually. One is a rising star at the office named
Johnny Whitefeather (Spider-Man 3’s Sandman Thomas Haden Church) and the other is his own socially detached seven-year-old daughter Olivia (newcomer Yara Shahidi). When Whitefeather threatens his promotion by stealing clients away with new age hokum, Evan starts to pay closer attention to Olivia and her fantasy princesses who reveal pending financial trends that help him inch closer to the big prize: a top spot in the empire of Warren Buffet-like Dante D' Enzo (Martin Sheen). What Evan finds, of course, is that some things are more important than money. That, we all saw coming.
     What no one guessed, however, is that Eddie Murphy is back. The comedian, whose métier was the raw R-rated genre and films like 48 Hours, Trading Places, and Beverly Hills Cop had been in a slump with a string of failed reinventions, most visibly, Meet Dave and The Haunted Mansion. Thankfully he’s found his groove again. Sure, Imagine That is no Coming to America but it’s no Bowfinger, either.
     Indeed, this cute and satisfying feel-good film is far from perfect. Veteran actors Ronny Cox and Martin Sheen are squandered in vapid roles and the imaginary character names and dialog are irritating baby talk (Olivia’s magic blanket is her “Googaa” and you tire of hearing that almost immediately); though the latter may be intentional. Equally childish is Whitefeather’s stereotypical Native American shtick that “we’re all under one sky,” or that by listening to the “Dream Sparrow” he can “rain down prosperity. And how!”
     Still, it all comes together for some very funny moments like the Grace that’s prayed over the pancake breakfast featuring condiments like mustard and hot sauce (“Oh Lord, please protect my daddy's throat”) or Johnny Whitefeather’s abject act of desperation: for $6000 he has a blanket of his own blessed by a tribal elder and forces his son on a hysterical late-night vision quest (“your tribal name: Red Bull!”).
     In the end, the plot is hackneyed and a bit too saccharine-sweet, but Eddie Murphy is funny again.
     Imagine that.

  
  
2 Honks
MPAA Rating: PG for some mild language and brief questionable behavior.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809932975/trailer

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'The Hangover' creates quite a buzz

In the wild new comedy from Old School director Todd Phillips, three friends awake in their Sin City hotel suite after an alcohol-fueled bachelor party to find a baby and a tiger, but no recollection of anything and no sign whatsoever of the groom-to-be. The film was originally titled, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, but you ought to follow-up with your own doctor when you get back home.”

     Doug’s getting married and his best friends Stu and Phil are not about to let his bachelorhood go quietly into the night. So with a borrowed vintage Mercedes and future brother-in-law Alan, they set-out for one last celebration that begins with a toast atop the roof of Caesars Palace … and that’s the last thing they remember.
     The next morning, Stu is on the floor with a missing tooth, Phil unknowingly sports a hospital bracelet, and Alan discovers a baby in the closet. Nowhere to be found, however, is Doug. Armed with those few clues, the trio sets-out to recreate the night and find their buddy, along the way, perhaps, explaining why an escort named Jade is wearing Stu’s grandmother’s Holocaust ring, why Mike Tyson is dogging them, and what’s the deal with the little Chinese gangster, Mr. Chow, who jumps out of the trunk of their car swinging a tire iron.
     The film stars Bradley Cooper (He's Just Not That Into You, Yes Man), Heather Graham (Swingers, Boogie Nights), Ed Helms (The Office’s “Nard-Dog” Andrew Bernard), and relative unknown Zach Galifianakis in essentially another “men behaving badly” tale, but with a twist: It’s original. The plot is intriguing. The way the story unfolds is fresh. And the comedy? It’s as undeniable as it is offensive. Stu’s song (“What do tiger’s dream of when they take a little tiger snooze…“), the Rainman send-up, Mike Tyson singing Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” … these rank among some of the funniest cinematic moments. But it‘s not for everyone. Throughout the ninety-nine minutes you’ll find yourself shocked and maybe even embarrassed, but never bored. 
     Unfortunately the characters are one-dimensional and their mission is insipid. Consequently, you take little away from this film beyond the laugh-out-loud raunchy and often politically incorrect laughs. It’s not a feel-good movie, in fact, there‘s nothing meaningful about it at all, and that’s OK. Sometimes a flick is just an hour and a half of idiotic fun and … well … that pretty much describes The Hangover.

2 ½ Honks
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material.
 
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810044687/trailer

And see what else the Med City Movie Guy is up to here:
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