Kicking and Screaming

As Jason Batman plays what seems to be every role as a character lost in the middle, Will Ferrell has been playing the same type of character for years but unlike Batman, Ferrell's niche can't really be described. As in the Anchorman films or The Campaign, Ferrell's characters are all over the place and can be beyond strange and hard to put a finger on. Throughout Will Ferrell's filmography, we are used to getting the same type of silly comedy from him but Kicking and Screaming is his most different role. In it, he is trying to be a father figure and also a motivator in a sports film. In the end, Kicking and Screaming is just too generic to work fully.

Phil Weston ( Ferrell) is the type of guy who has never been able to live up to his father's expectations throughout his whole life and was always a benchwarmer in younger days as a soccer player. After his son's soccer coach leaves the team, Phil steps in to be the coach and that also makes him the father that he never was to his son. At the same time, he is trying to win against his old man Buck (Robert Duvall) who is also a coach in the league.

Kicking and Screaming is in the same mold of the original Bad News Bears. Actually you could now say that about many sports films because Bad News Bears was such an influential movie and the influence here is even more obvious. Ferrell is someone who never had anything himself and eventually finds himself through coaching this team that is so dysfunctional but in the end, they learn how to to play a soccer somehow. Robert Duvall works as unaccredited villain who's eventually turns into the good guy at the end. Even Mike Ditka shows up as the assistant coach but really he's not given much to do and I assume he is here on name value alone and to sell some tickets.

As like "Coach Carter" of the same year, Phil makes it but in a very interesting way. In some ways, Ferrell is  pulling off some of his past character traits and the character even appears to be  channeling The Anchorman character which is not surprising considering the films were only released one year apart. Phil is a strange character no doubt and at times very unlikable. He yells at his team a lot and wants his opponents to be injured which I would think go against most parent's ethics. He does however does admit many of his wrongs in a lengthy speech near the end. We can like Coach Carter more as character but Phil Weston gives us another more silly version of the sports coach.

This movie does have a lot of soccer in it for people that are interested in that though I'm not one of those. It does produce more than it's share of chuckles and you can also say you say you saw Josh Hutcherson before his career really took off. Kids will love this movie because of the humor but it really is a mixed bag for the parents and also the teenager audience because that humor is too childish. By the end, Kicking and Screaming will have you kicking and screaming because it's kind of a mess that barely survives.

3/5

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Coach Carter

In 1999, head basketball coach Ken Carter of Richmond High School in Richmond, California made national headlines for benching his undefeated team due to poor grades. This was a story that caused a great deal of dislike towards the coach but brought up the always important ideas of leadership, grades and that there is more to life than just basketball.  In 2005, the story of Ken Carter story turned into the movie "Coach Carter" starring Samuel L. Jackson and directed by Thomas Carter.

What this movie all boils down to is Samuel L. Jackson who is a great asset and who makes this film. He brings this attitude and temper of a hard guy but eventually a likable basketball coach that makes this film move and succeed. This is the type of character that people look up to because of the fact that he is trying to bring something positive to the life of teenagers even if he's a little hard on them during the process. Some might call it "tough love".

Another reason this story and film are so successful is due to the atmosphere of the setting of the movie, Richmond, California. Richmond is a rough area that nobody expects good basketball teams to come out of. People don't expect kids to get good grades with the graduation rate being so poor. Considering this, Ken Carter deserves even more credit for trying to accomplish something that would seem doubtful and highly unlikely.

As a person who loves basketball and has followed the NBA for years, I especially should have loved Coach Carter due to the basketball theme. Well the basketball scenes aren't bad and are set-up ok but they are generic and very unrealistic. We can see where most of these scenes are going as we go along. We also don't know much about the players or who they are which is common in sport films and the ending is predictable. If this film improved the basketball scenes and added something there, who knows how good this could have been.

Coach Carter works the motivation angle pretty well but falls off from there. In the end, this is a sports story which you should probably skip because you have seen all this before. This likely will  be one of the forgotten films of Samuel L. Jackson career and rightfully so.

3/5 

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Non-Stop

It's hard to believe but it really seems like Liam Neeson has been around forever in the film world. First starting out in the early 80's with the medieval and sci-fi films, "Excalibur" and "Krull", then close to twenty years later in 1999 where we first recognized him as Qui-Gon Jinn in the Star Wars prequel "Phantom Menace". Then to "Taken" in 2009 and to "Unknown" in 2011, Neeson has turned himself into a action star over the last five years and you could say he has found a niche at this stage of his career.

In his new action film, Non-Stop, Liam Neeson is Bill Marks, a drunk and a lonely Federal Air Marshall who must save his plane after a text message is sent to him from an unknown source wanting $150 million or else a person will be killed every twenty minutes on the flight if the the money is not sent. With the recent disappearance of Malaysian Flight MH370, this is the type of plot that fits perfectly into our modern society in a scary, eerie way.

You really can't say that there are many films are like Non-Stop. Liam Neeson really works as Bill Mark because Neeson is (past) middle age and he's fits right into the Bill Marks character timeline. The film centers on Marks as a federal marshal which itself is somewhat uncommon. The movie is also set only on an airplane and for just one setting, it's gives more than usual, and many, supporting characters and also very well developed characters. This different and confined atmosphere is stuffy and creates tension and also explains the film's rather low $50 million budget. Julianne Moore plays Jen Summers perfectly as a passenger lost in the middle of the attacks and brings out some possible hints of a romantic side to Marks.
   

 With a film like this with a twist at the end, much of this film comes down to the ending and how effective the last act is. You can say the villain is not that hard to figure out and is someone who seems to know too much about Marks and he also delivers a motive that is very far-fetched. The ending does bring good action scenes and special effects but the premise is beyond impossible and it has the notion of trying to be too happy and sweet. It is the type of twist and ending that doesn't ruin it's film like others but it's more sour than sweet.

Non-Stop had the potential to be a great action film with such a bright idea but some wrong turns and phony ending turned this into an uneven mess. Non-Stop does eventually stop but not into the film that we wanted.

3 /5

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Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

In 1993, news of the West Memphis Three Killings swept through the nation and made it's way into the history books. Three eight-year old boys Steve Branch, Michael Moore, Christopher Byers were killed in the woods near a busy truck stop in West Memphis, Arkansas and three teenage boys were then convicted of the murders. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is the conclusion of the Paradise Lost series regarding the West Memphis Three and chronicles their release from jail and what lies ahead for this unsolved murder case.

This documentary first points to why Jessie Misskelly, Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols were convicted of these murders. From the ludicrous theories of satanic rituals, their past history including how they liked to wear black and listen to Metallica, the film presents much evidence of how wrong the police were in bringing these boys to trial. Through this evidence, you get a feel for these teenagers and who they are. Baldwin seems to be the quiet guy of the group who wouldn't seem to hurt a fly. Misskelley is the tough guy of the group and Echols is lost in the middle but of course, all were in the same predicament.

The documentary also goes into details about Mark Byers, the adoptive father of Byers who we know through neighbors was with the kids before they died and how his DNA was found at the scene of the crime. There were some interesting facts about this suspect but the film includes calls to the police to look into this guy more.

Even though it did start to drag a little, the ending of this movie has a feel of watching history. This HBO film release date was postponed two months to show the prison release of the West Memphis Three and it was quite worth it. The ending feels fulfilling, and has a interesting legal side to it.
                                                                                 

 
With the beautiful shots of West Memphis, Arkansas, some great Metallica tunes, and a compelling story, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is quite an accomplishment. Some of these facts we could obviously have been found online but this documentary brings so much more depth to this story. Even though we got what we wanted with the release of these innocent men, this investigation is far from over and we have to wonder what more there may be to come for this film series as more facts are known. This third installment leaves the possibility of future movies in this series wide open.

4.5/5

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The Blind Side

From 2009 to the present day, I wrote off The Blind Side like it was nothing. I've never been a big football fan even though it is the most popular sport in the United States and I just got tired of all the praise that this film got. As with any film though, The Blind Side can't be judged until it's watched. It offers like a dozen things that seems to come out of nowhere and it's very likable indeed. An overall great film.

Based on a true story, The Blind Side follows around homeless teen Micheal Orr (Quinton Aaron) who never grew up with parents who were there for him and who's really got nothing going for him. Like a billet family, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) and her husband Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw) take Micheal in and raise him in a proper home that he never had. They show him the ways of life and Michael ends up turning into a football star through it all.

It sounds exactly like a football film but it also has the elements of family, how to do well in school and also how to channel violence in the right way. Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw play perfect parents and Bullock's work here won her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar Award in 2010. Collins (Lily Collins) and S.J. (Jae Head) play the kids of the family and both come off as unexpectedly good and add fun and humor to the film.

Another reason this cannot be considered just a full football film is the racial issues touched on here. This part of the story is of a African-American teenager trying to live in the South where we know it can be hard and the film tries to deliver the message that everybody is the same regardless of  the color of your skin. I think this is one of the important messages in this world today and it is always nice when a film touches on this.

Once we get to the football scenes, we can't stay it's bad either. It's typical in the sense that it shows  the character Michael Orr developing a toughness that wasn't there before. It also adds a football flavor to an already packed film and it is fun to watch cameos from college football coaches Nick Saban to Lou Holtz. Don't expect any good acting from these coaches but that is to be expected and the quality of the acting by the cameos is kind of beside the point anyway.

The Blind Side is a majestic, heartfelt and insightful film that would work perfectly for the Relationship classes that are now taught in High School and College. The film is mostly for teenagers but also for the whole family too. Expect a tearjerker though.

4.5/5

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You've Got Mail

 

It's hard to believe but there was once a time in the dating world where the use of technology didn't have the impact that is does today. With Facebook, Twitter, dating sites and advancements in phone technology, there are now so many ways to connect or make contact with a person where as before you really only had a home telephone or even letters. You've Got Mail was a 1998 romantic comedy that introduced new technology to the dating world and in a very cheesy way. 

Small time book owner Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) is living in the Big Apple and must compete with the opening of the new Fox Books run by the high profile Joe Fox (Tom Hanks). As it turns out, both of these business-owners are instant-messaging each other without realizing who the other is and a love relationship forms.

                     Nothing better than a REALLY dated computer

If anything, this seems very much like a typical relationship film. It is a love story that starts with people not connecting, being enemies and both doing opposite type of things. Even though these ideas are very dated now (when that last time you heard of anyone using AOL?), the instant- messaging is what makes this story. At the time, instant-messaging was somewhat new and I believe AOL may have been using the movie as a marketing idea. The idea that these people are messaging each other without realizing each other is unlikely but we can still very much go with it. It provides us with an ending that we see coming a mile away but there is still something in it to make us like it.

In this love story, there are a lot of hidden messages and surprises offered. Through the book theme, we learn what it means to own a book company whether big or small. We also get to watch life as it was in 1998 which is quite interesting close to twenty years after the fact. Even though it is redundant in every shape of form, we do learn a little about dating and how that works. From Greg Kinnear to Steve Zahn, You've Got Mail has a surprisingly strong supporting cast for a type of film like this. It's a very needed part of a love story that's only half-good.

You've Got Mail is far from an outstanding love story. As mentioned earlier, it's as dated as it ever could be and the leads have done much better romantic films. That said, You've Got Mail is still very much revolutionary while still sappy. It is one of the few tech love stories that men could really enjoy.

3.5/5

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2014 Week 5 box office totals

1. Ride Along $12.0 million - I expect this to fall by next weekend but this has had a really good run that can't be described as simply noteworthy.

2. Frozen $8.9 million - For a film that came out in mid-November, it is very impressive that week after week it is making money and strong money too.

3. That Awkward Moment $8.7 million - Not necessarily bad for an opening on this weekend but I really question why this wasn't released in the summer or the spring.

4. The Nut Job $7.3 million - If this was a normal week, I would expected for this to fall and it did  but it got lucky more than anything this week.

5.  Lone Survivor $7.1 million

6. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit $5.3 million - I expected this film to do well at the beginning but once again it is just in the middle of the road for box office receipts. It is slowly but surely making it's money back though.

7. Labor Day $5.2 million - I didn't except this to make much on it's opening weekend due to the dull subject matter but even so and for this type of week, this should have made more.

8. American Hustle $4.2 million

9. I, Frankenstein $3.8 million- For a slow week, this was the week for this type of film that could rise but it didn't really and is still a ways off.

10. The Wolf of Wall Street $ 3.4 million - Like American Hustle, this film is starting to slow down and both should be out of the top ten by next week.

What we have learned: Ride Along is impressive again and Super Bowl Sunday week is always a slow week.

What's ahead: The Monuments Men, The Lego Movie and Vampire Academy all come out next weekend.

Predictions for next week: I expect The Lego Movie to dominate and it will be another weekend for the kids.

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