Movies

Bounty Hunter

THE FUNNY JUMPED BAIL

By Tyler Kempf

A romantic comedy should have two elements, romance and comedy. Unfortunately, The Bounty Hunter is missing both of those elements no matter how hard it tries. In fact, the film tries so hard to be both funny and sappy, that it just comes across a bit…well, sad.

The Bounty Hunter is about a pair of ex’s, a hotshot investigative reporter (Jennifer Aniston) whose bail is revoked after she has missed her recent court date because she was following a lead on a possible story, and a bounty hunter (Gerard Butler) who has been giving the task of bringing in his stubborn and driven ex wife.

The film follows similar structures of the action/romcoms of the 90’s (I Love Trouble, Bird on a Wire) but the action is definitely lacking, and the mystery takes a back seat to the main character’s “relationship”. Throughout the film, the main characters are reminded why they fell in love in the first place, or at least that’s what they say. There’s very little romantic chemistry between Aniston and Butler to make their previous relationship believable.
Aniston, a talented comedian, didn’t seem to have her heart in this film and Butler needs to fire his dialect coach, because his Scottish accent breaks through too many time. Butler’s character is no “Dog: The Bounty Hunter”. His character comes across as such a weenie. Before breaking down a door to stop Aniston from escaping, he yells, “Alright, I’m coming in there.” The dude is 230lbs. Use your muscle to be intimidating for crying out loud. In another scene, he gets into a argument with Bill Hader’s character about how Aniston was more annoying than he was, but it comes across as a “nuh-uh, uh huh” moment. And speaking of Hader, the talented comic was totally miscast as Aniston’s stalker of a co-worker. Hader’s too charming to play pathetic.

By the end of the film, the mystery, or lack there of, is tied up way too quickly and we’re left with more romance, or lack there of. The film should have been 30 minutes shorter and a heck of a lot funnier. Sadly, I think I would have rather watched a few episodes of ‘Dog: The Bounty Hunter” and saved my money.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2010

BOOZE, BOOBS, BLOWJOBS & BUBBLES

By Tyler Kempf

Before you head into the movie theatre to watch Hot Tub Time Machine, I have one recommendation: be prepared to suspend disbelief. If you’re not willing to do so, you won’t enjoy a bit of this film. That being said, what would you do if you could travel back in time twenty-five years? Would you change the way your life ended up or would you do your best to play everything out exactly the same way so as not to disrupt the outcome of your future life? This is the main question posed to the four main characters of Hot Tub Time Machine. Well, actually, there are two main questions. The second one being how many chicks can you bang with your recently re-invigorated sexual stamina?

Hot Tub Time Machine, starring John Cusack, Rod Corddry (The Daily Show), Craig Robinson (The Office) and Clark Duke (Greek), is an even blend of a raunchy sex flick and a buddy comedy. The film opens up on three middle-aged friends who are all unhappy with their lives. Nick (Robinson) has given up his music dreams to primp upper-class dogs, Adam’s (Cusack) girlfriend has just moved out of their house leaving him with his socially inept nephew, Jacob (Duke), and Lou is an alcoholic. “You know how every group of friends has an asshole?” Robinson exclaims. “He’s our asshole.”

The three friends decide to go to their favorite ski town to forget about their troubles, dragging young Jacob along. When they arrive, however, they come to find that the town is no longer the hustling and bustling sex party they remember from twenty-five years ago. Remember when I mentioned earlier that you needed to suspend disbelief? Yeah, this is where that comes into play. Through a few silly events, the guys find themselves transported back to 1986. Though they look the same to each other, everybody else sees them as the young 20 year-olds they once were. And from this point on, hilarity ensues.
The main characters are all very likable, which is not very common in recent R rated films. Craig Robinson is a standout among the cast. He’s really given a chance to shine in a lead role for the first time. Also, keep an eye out for Crispin Glover as the one-armed bellboy, who is hysterical here. Save for a few off color jokes that don’t seem to fit in with the rest of the humor, Hot Tub Time Machine is a funny movie. There are some great one-liners and the film pays homage to more than a couple of our favorite 80’s films, including some old Cusack movies.

The Wolfman 2010

by Tyler Kempf

There’s a fine line between man and beast. Universal Pictures’ reimagining of their classic, ‘The Wolfman’ starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, often seems like two different films, one as exciting as a big, snarling beast, but the other as boring a an old, slow talking man.

The film takes place in England during the late 1800’s. Lawrence Talbot (Del Toro) is an American actor travelling through his native England in a production of Hamlet when he receives a letter from his soon to be sister-in-law, Gwen (Emily Blunt). The letter states that his brother has gone missing and she wishes he would come home to help with the search. Upon arrival, he learns from his estranged father (Hopkins) that his brother is indeed dead. Talbot takes it upon himself to find out the identity of the murderer. The locals all have ideas that it was a beast that has been haunting the land brought on by the gypsies that live outside of town. While visiting the gypsy camp, Talbot is bitten by the beast, and subsequently spends the rest of the movie dealing with the fact that he is now a werewolf.

The move is visually stunning. Director Joe Johnston obviously had a vision on how to incorporate modern CGI with old school prosthetics, courtesy of the amazing Rick Baker, who also did the groundbreaking effects for ‘An American Werewolf in London’, a far superior werewolf film. I only wish Johnson had a stronger script to work with. The pacing of the film is off. The mix of period film and horror don’t blend incredibly well. When there isn’t a werewolf on the screen, the movie seems to really lose steam.

Del Toro has never been so boring in a film. His character has very few levels. We feel sorry for the crap that he’s gone through in his life, but we don’t really care what happens to him. We just want to see him rip some more people to shreds. Blunt is equally as bland. Her character enters the film while mourning the loss of her future husband and she never really seems to get out of that funky mood, save for one scene in which she learns to skip rocks. SO EXCITING!!! There’s also very little chemistry between the two of them on screen. This film is a prime example of two amazing, very appealing actors who just can’t seem to do much with the poor script that they’re given.

Hopkins is the godsend in this film. His charisma, charm and humor really bring the material up to his level when he’s on screen.

There’s a line at the end of the film about how it’s not a sin to kill a beast, but it is to kill a man. In regards to ‘The Wolfman’, when the humans are being humans, the movie is bland, but when there’s a werewolf on the screen, watch out. The action (and that’s what it is, action, not horror) of this film is so much fun. When the werewolf goes on a rampage, the film becomes sinfully exciting.