Never underestimate the power of karma. Don Johnston never will. Don has just broken up with his girlfriend, who urges him to get his life together and grow up. One day he receives an anonymous letter revealing to him that his son, who he’s never met, is looking for him. Jim Jarmusch’s tale of a lady killer who gets a jolt of reality facing his own mortality, is a clever and pretty interesting slice of life about a man whose life seems basically comfortable until he gets the announcement.
What can you do to royally piss me off? Cast three of the stupidest most untalented people in Hollywood in a remake. Yes, that’s right earning of a smack across the face. Take a Jack ass who is a Jack ass, a one-hit wonder, and a singer whose talents are in her sweater, and you have “The Dukes of Hazzard,” a cleaned up, PC spoof of the actual show that preceded it, that can never tell whether its taking itself seriously, or as a general satire of hillbillies.
I’m a sucker for a good tale about superheroes and the learning of their abilities and so on. I admit that. I love a good superhero tale, and that’s why I didn’t completely dislike “Sky High,” because beneath its Disney muck, it’s actually a pretty fun tale about living up to your parents and the pressures of it. Michael Angarano is Will, the only son of a suburban couple who happen to be the world’s strongest superheroes. Ahem—they met during a battle and fell in love, and now are a team. “The Incredibles,” you say? Well, yes, but I just plain enjoyed Kurt Russell as a somewhat demented working class father who encourages his son to take up the family business. “Sky High” is busy, it’s colorful, and it will keep its target audience watching with a smile.
For the record, “The Ballad of Jack and Rose” is a film I’ve been dying to see since its initial release into select theaters. Often, indie films with utter potential to be pure gems arrive, and I’m beaming and anxious to watch it. “Ballad” is a film I’ve been trying to get a hold of for a long while. “Ballad” is a story of the last of the flower power free love generation. Jack, the father, is one of the last of the hippy generation who finds out he’s dying, and dying very soon. His death symbolizes the death of the hippy generation, and his daughter Rose is one whom will apparently carry it on against his will. They live on their own island, a deserted commune to be more exact, which they hold residence in, in spite of its lack of citizens whom moved on ages ago.
I was very open-minded about the possibility that I would be completely surprised with “Rent.” I never drew much attention to its release into theaters, and I never bothered to see it when it was in the theater, so I approached “Rent” with as much optimism and benefit of the doubt I could muster up. Then when I was finished with it, I realized I received what I was expecting. I mean, you can’t get much from a musical with a pastiche of musical numbers that resemble a series of rejected commercial jingles. “Rent” is very apropos to the stigma of modern underground theater, with the art savants creating productions filled with supermodels representing “real” people in New York City.
I’ll say I had zero expectations in regards to “Accepted”, mainly because it looked so ridiculous, and vapid. And it is, but I enjoyed it, because it provides a very entertaining ninety minutes that starts out as a typical college comedy and transforms into a somewhat interesting social commentary. And it’s funny as hell. I like Justin Long a lot, I’ve liked him since “Jeepers Creepers” and in “Accepted”, he’s funny as a quasi-Ferris Bueller named Bartleby Gaines who has slacked off through high school, and to prevent breaking it to his family that he can’t get into any schools, he instead invents a school which then snowballs into a grand hoax.
Bobby is a boy who dreams of becoming a racer, and when he finally gets the chance, he becomes one of the most popular racers in the industry. That is until he has a break down after a crash and now must rebuild what was taken away from him. Ferrell’s foray into adult comedy once again is a weak and mediocre one, and for every one hilarious joke that “Talladega Nights” hits with audiences, there are about four or five that really fail to be as funny as it could be. McKay’s film is too aware of itself, and instead of playing it deadpan while delivering the gags and jokes, it desperately tries to gauge laughs from the audience, including every such nuance and quirk it can just to assure itself that we’ll laugh.