NMR: Cedar Rapids

While more people probably saw Ed Helms in The Hangover Part II, his far better effort was in this small comedy. Helms stars as Tim Lippe, a sheltered insurance agent who has to travel outside of his hometown for the first time for a conference when his company's typical representative suddenly passes away. The film offers a few 'fish out of water' jokes, but it's primarily about the relationship he forms with a trio of other agents played nicely by John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and and Isiah Whitlock. As a bonus, the film also sprinkles in cameos from a number of talented and funny supporting actors like Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Root, Rob Corddry, Thomas Lennon, Mike O'Malley, and Kurtwood Smith. Helms' attempts to loosen up and shed his insecurities produce mostly funny content. However, I felt they made his character sink a bit too far into depravity in the middle, which hurt the film a bit. Still, this is a short, simple, enjoyable film about what happens when we venture beyond our safe bubble. Similar to the guys in The Hangover visiting Vegas or any teen comedy featuring characters heading off to college, being able to cut loose can be a lot of fun until things get out of hand. And it's your ability to return back to that bubble a better person rather than a destroyed one is what's most important. Rating: *** 1/2

Schur as Schur can be

All this week, the AV Club has ran a 4-part interview with Parks and Recreation executive producer Michael Schur. In it he comments on each episode from Season 3, as well as discusses the season as a whole and the general vision of for the show. Obviously if you're a fan of Parks and Rec. you should read this. But even if you're just a fan of television this is a fantastic read as it really gives you an inside look at the behind-the-scenes process of what goes into making great televison. Links to all four parts of the interview are posted below.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Konichiwa Kosuke

Indians get Fukudome from Cubs

The first, and hopefully not last, trade for the Cleveland Indians have been made. Here's my breakdown of the move:

Pros: Fukudome has had a really good on base percentage this year, the Cubs ate up most of Fukudome's contract so we saved some money on the move, we only gave up a couple of single A guys to get him

Cons: Thus far with the Cubs this season he hasn't really produced many runs which is something that the team needs, he's also a left-handed batter and we need some righties

Overall, a mixed bag but I'll reserve judgment. If this is the first of more moves to come, I'll consider it a shrewd move. If this is all we do, it will seem like a lateral move that once again reaffirms the incompetence of the front office.

The Ides have it

Before you know it, it'll be awards season again for the film industry, which means we're starting to see glimpses of some of the possible contenders. One film that appears like it could do very well is The Ides of March, directed by and starring George Clooney. Here's your first look at a trailer from it.

NMR: Unknown

Typically when I watch my film I do my best to suspend disbelief when things get a bit preposterous or unrealistic, but this film tested my limits. Unknown is apt title for this film because it is just filled with so many plot holes, leaving the audience clueless. The story centers around a man played by Liam Neeson, who while attending a conference in Berlin with his wife, (January Jones) gets into a car accident and is in a coma for four days. When he awakens and finds his wife she claims to not recognize him and says she married to someone else by that name(the fact that she wasn't by his bedside to begin with should clue you in to the fact that something is amiss). From there Neeson's character goes on a quest to find out the truth and once we get some answers, we're only left with more questions. The twist itself isn't so bad, they just did a really poor job of getting us to that point. It's as if they started with the finish and worked backwards. It's clear that this film attempts to cash in on the success that Neeson had with his other Euro-thriller, Taken. And he is good in this role. There's also some nice acting in small supporting roles from the likes of Frank Langella and Bruno Ganz (the man who played Hitler in Downfall). Trying to comprehend the story in this film will simply cause your brain to hurt, so don't even try. If you can zone out and simply appreciate the action and thrill you may enjoy this movie, but that's easier said than done. Rating: ***

Tribe Watch (Week 16)

Record: 51 - 48

Standing: Second in AL Central

The Tribe is at the worst spot they've been in all season right now. Not just in terms of the standings, where we currently sit a game an half behind Detroit, but just from a pure performance perspective. We continue to lose guys to injury and those who are playing cannot seem to get a hit to save their life. Currently we are riding a four game losing streak, all of which came against divisional opponents. It could have been worse, but we somehow managed to win both games in Monday's doubleheader. Losing against teams in your division is never good, but I especially hate it when we lose against those lowlifes from Chicago. I hate the White Sox so much and do not want to see them somehow win this division. For as bad as things have looked for the Tribe, this should be a very interesting week to watch because this is the final week of the trading deadline. It's becoming increasingly apparent that this team needs to make some kind of move. Hopefully they'll be smart about finding one or more players that can be brought in here and help this team produce without sacrificing too much in return. As far as opponents are concerned, we'll remain at home for the rest of the week, first against the Anaheim Angels and then another weekend series against a division opponent when we play the Kansas City Royals. By this time next week, we should a good sense of the state of this team and whether or not we can be hopeful that playoff baseball will be played in Cleveland this year. Pray for good news come next Sunday and as always, Go Tribe!

Inaction Jackson

As Fringe fans contemplate what happened to Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), who literally disappeared at the end of last season, the show's producers decided to have a little fun with this and created this audition reel for Comic-Con attendees showcasing notable celebrities trying out for the role of Peter. Very funny stuff, especially for us nerds who know who each of these actors are.

Woe, the humanity

Try as I might, I just can't help myself from seeing these Transformers movies, despite being less than enamored with the previous entries. Blame the heat wave this time as I was merely trying to find respite and decided going to the theater was the best way to cool off.

Yes, the robots in disguise are back for a third time in Transformers: Dark of the Moon - an admittedly better effort than the awful second film, but one still plagued with problems. The story this time around ties in the real life events surrounding the first moon landing. Apparently, a ship carrying important Transformers technology had crashed on the moon and was discovered by the first American astronauts when they travelled to the dark side of the moon - a fact that had been kept a secret until now. Both Autobots and Decepticons want the technology and naturally, that eventually leads to another big battle between the two groups.

Of course, such an epic battle wouldn't be complete until there's a way to shoehorn Sam Witwicky (Shia Lebeouf) right into the middle of the action. This character may be one of the lest likable characters in the history of film. Some of it has to do with Lebeouf's grating 'acting'. But a lot of the blame falls on director Michael Bay and the film's writers. It was one thing to craft him as a whiny, petulant teen in the first film but the character has supposedly graduated from an Ivy League college and experience two robot wars and yet still behaves the same way. Despite his educational background he can't find a job (I guess that's Bay's way of trying to make the film relevant of our time) and whines about not being included in our country's usage of the Autobots. Why didn't this guy just join the army if he wanted to fight alongside his robot friends all the time? Yet, despite all of his very apparent flaws, he still manages to get hot, supermodel girlfriends. This time it's newcomer Rosie Huntington-Whitley, who easily replaces Megan Fox in the role of vapid hottie with no discernible acting skills.

Lebeouf's Witwicky is far from the only problem with the film - frankly every single human character in the film is bothersome. At best, they are one-dimensional (What were actors like Ken Jeong, Andrew Daly, and even, John Malkovich doing in this film) and at worst, they mug for the camera and take up way too much screen time that should have been devoted to the real conflict between the Autobots and the Decepticons. There are large set pieces devoted to putting the human characters in peril and all I kept thinking was 'What are Optimus Prime, Megatron, and the rest of the key Transformers doing right now?' Had this been a film that had taken place on Cybertron, the Transformers' home planet and there were no human characters, this would have been infinitely a better film.

The scenes that do feature robot on robot carnage are admittedly very cool. Bay introduces some new ones that look great and do a lot of damage. He also eliminated any of the problematic one, like the racists twins or the one with 'robot balls'. I'm also glad I made the decision to see the film in 3D. It was clear that Michael Bay had the technology in mind when he created the film and the scenes that utilize the technology really pop off the screen. If more films could find a way to use 3D in this way, the technology wouldn't catch as much flack as it currently is.

I will give Michael Bay some credit in that he did seem to make a concentrated effort to fix some of the large issues that people had with the second film. The humor is kept to the minimum and isn't offensive this time. There also isn't as much exposition. They keep the storytelling fairly simple and just get straight to the action. I just wish they had allowed the action to be more centered around the robot. The one character that really gets short-changed here is Megatron, who not only loses screen time to the human characters, but also gets marginalized by his characters like Optimus Prime and newcomer, Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy).

Those who are Transformers fans will likely have made peace already with Michael Bay's drawbacks as a director and will enjoy this improved effort. It's unlikely that those who have no care for this franchise will suddenly be lured in by this third film. I will say though that because the 3D is so well used here, that it is one of the few films that I would recommend seeing in the theater if you are going to see it. The characters will be one-dimensional no matter how you view it, so you might as well give your eyes a treat and let all the matter, debris and robot arms fly out at you to hopefully distract you from the poor acting that's on display. This is noisy entertainment, but sometimes it's fun to watch these robots hidden as cars pop out and start fighting one another. I just wish the humans weren't robots in disguise as well. Grade: C+

Lost footage

As Comic-con rolls on, fans of Lost were treated to a special surprise. Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse unveiled a "deleted" scene that supposedly was cut from the Season 1 finale. What begins as a tantalizing tease turns into a funny goof that shows how these guys are able to admit some of their errors as it relates to how the show was resolved.

NMR: The Lincoln Lawyer

Watching this made me realized how much I had forgotten how enjoyable a straightforward legal thriller can be. The genre has somewhat disappeared from theaters in recent years, likely due to the glut of legal shows on television, but this movie shows that if done right there's no reason why more stories like this can't be made into other films. Based on a novel by Michael Connelly, it stars Matthew McConaughey (in one of his best acting performances in a long time) as a lawyer who does most of his work while being driven around in his Lincoln. He takes on a case defending a rich kid (Ryan Phillipe) who's being accused of beating up a woman. The case takes a number of twists and turns, putting McConaughey's character into quite a pickle. The film is rounded out with a number of excellent supporting actors including Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy, Bryan Cranston, Josh Lucas, and John Leguizamo. Director Brad Furman creates a great mood in the film that shows a gritty side of Los Angeles without making you feel dirty or depressed in the process. If the film has any faults, I would say that it probably has a twist too many as the film tries to wrap things up and it also shortchanges some characters, who likely were more developed and/or explained in the original book. Still this is a very solid thriller that is certainly worth a rental if you never got a chance to check it out when it was in theaters. Rating: **** 1/2

Amazing replace

With Comic-con this week, expect to see a lot of trailers/previews for stuff coming out next week. This time, it's our first look at Marvel's attempt to reboot the Spiderman franchise with Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) taking over as Peter Parker.

Prestige Potter

As the movie poster states - it ends here. After 10 years of enchanting audiences with their magic, Daniel Radcliff and co. say goodbye with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2. The film offers up fans a satisfying conclusion to this decade long ride, though like most of the adaptations this one also does not quite hit perfection.

When we left things off, things looked bleak for The Boy Who Lived and his Hogwarts pals. They were losing friends left and right while Voldemort was continuing to grow stronger. This film picks up with Harry, Ron and and Hermione on the search for horcruxes (random objects which contain a piece of Voldemort's soul), while the rest of the school tries to stave off an attack from an army of Death Eaters. Unlike Part 1, this film is mostly all action leaving you little time to catch your breath as you go along for the ride.

There are a lot of terrific scenes here, particularly the action sequences where everyone has wands a-firing. An early scene involving dragons and a bank heist is also top notch. What I appreciate the most about this film, even more than many of the recent films, is the way they were able to bring this expansive cast together and give them each their moment. I suppose that is more of a credit to author J.K. Rowling who had enough foresight to work all of these characters into the end game, but to also give all of the key characters who we have loved throughout the series their moment of triumph. While characters will often frame it as such, this is not just about Harry. This is a group effort to defeat evil and I enjoyed watching each of them find a way to utilize their talents to help the cause.

Since this is the end, it's important I point out one of the series' lesser-praised stars. Once again Alan Rickman shines as Professor Severus Snape. While he's been a delight to watch in each of these films in the various ways he's found to torment Harry and his friends, here he gets his moment of redemption through a series of flashbacks chronicling his life and his actions behind the scenes. Rickman is terrific in these scenes and it goes a long way to explaining the internal struggle Snape had to deal with throughout this whole ordeal. By noting his work, this is not meant to take away from the efforts of everyone else in his cast, but I truly feel that in a different actor's hands the complexities of the Snape character that are so well developed in the books would not have come across on the screen.

As I noted above, for as much of a enjoyable success as this film is, it does not quite hit every note exactly right. In the past, my minor quibbles have mostly surrounding the omissions or changes that the writer/director made in relation to the book. This time, I really didn't see any glaring changes that upset me. Instead, my minor complaints are associated with the emotional impact with some scenes. Reading the book, Rowling did such an amazing job of evoking pathos, sometimes with just a few words. In recalling those scenes, I anticipated having those emotions heightened as I saw them visually represented on the screen. Unfortunately, that didn't always happen. Without spoiling the actual events, I'll just say that some scenes that I expected to be quick and impactful were drug out to far and ones that I felt needed more time were rushed. I was disappointed, but that is the burden of the book reader who chooses to also see the film.

One important aside that I want to mention - this is the first of the Potter films to be done in 3D. I saw it in 2D and enjoyed it just the same. It certainly was clear though which scenes were intended for 3D though. Whether or not that extra dimension is worth it will likely depend on your general views of the technology. It seems like the filmmakers did enough to justify the conversion, but if you typically don't see films in 3D, I don't see any reason why you would change here.

Overall, no matter how large of a Potter fan you are, you'll likely be satisfied by the concluding tale. It provides a stark contrast to the overly talky Part 1 and wraps up all of the loose ends (there's even an epilogue which shows what happens to certain characters several year later - a fact you already know if you read the book). This film has already made a bajillion dollars, so it doesn't need my stamp of approval, but I shall praise it nonethess. Most film franchises peter out by the third or fourth movie, so credit to everyone involved for keeping the quality of the films consistent throughout. Simply put, their success was movie magic. Grade: A-

Bat signal

So it took a few days, but finally here's the first teaser trailer for next summer's next Batman adventure, The Dark Knight Rises.

NMR: Hall Pass

If you recall I wrote up a post analyzing this film's trailer shortly before the film was released in theaters. In it, I noted that I felt there were some problems with the storytelling that made it difficult for me to buy into the plot. Despite this misgivings, I felt I deserved to give the film a fair shake in case the trailer wasn't giving me the full story. Sadly, my worries turned out to be true. This film hits one false note after another until it arrives at a climax that is so overbooked and unnecessary that I have begun to question whether or not the Farrelly brothers are capable of making another quality comedy again. The biggest problem is that I never bought these guys (played by Owen Wilson and Jason Sudekis) needing the 'hall pass' in the first place. So they talk a bit crass when they're alone or occassionally eyeball an attractive woman. The wives'(played by Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate) suggestion that they need this time apart seems like a major overreaction. And yet when these guys do get the pass, the time is squandered - not just in terms of what they do, but also in the comedic value for the audience in what they do. There are a couple of chuckles, but most of the gross-out gags simply stress the gross aspect of them. None of the characters here are all that appealing - the men are emasculated, the women are hypocritical and anyone on the sidelines is largely shortchanged in terms of screen time. Including guys like Richard Jenkins and Stephen Merchant (from the British version of The Office) and then hardly doing anything with them is a crime. I can't say that I never laughed, but I definitely expected to laugh more and would have needed to do so in order to give this film a recommendation. Rating: ** 1/2

This is one sick trailer!

I would have preferred to have posted the teaser trailer for The Dark Knight Rises, which was shown in front of Harry Potter this past weekend, but there isn't a decent version of it yet online, so you'll have to wait. In the meantime, here's a trailer for a film I'm anticipating this year - the new virus thriller, Contagion, starring Matt Damon and directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Tribe Watch (Week 15)

Record: 49-44

Standing: First in AL Central

Definitely a missed opportunity this past weekend. After starting the second half of the season strong by beating up on Baltimore in the first two games, we ended up only coming away with a series split as the Indians gagged on Saturday and fell apart on Sunday. With as terrible as Baltimore is, we should have taken at the very least 3 out of the 4 games from them. The inability to beat those teams hurts our chances of separating ourselves from the rest of our AL Central rivals. Speaking of which, we start this week in a 4 game set against the Twins in Minnesota. That begins today with a doubleheader. I'm already worried about those two games given that we have an unproven David Huff pitching Game 1 in his season debut and the always shaky Fausto Carmona coming of the DL to pitch in Game 2. Also problematic is our depleted roster. We have seemingly lost Grady again to a knee injury, which certainly doesn't help. We have yet to play well in Minnesota's new stadium and I'm concerned that will continue in this series. I certainly hope I'm wrong though. After Minnesota, we'll be coming back home to play the dreaded White Sox. With two big divisional series this week, we could see our place in the standings dramatically shift. Let's hope it's in a postive direction. If nothing else, it should give the team's front office a clear sense of how active they should be as the trade deadline nears. Just like the thermostat, it appears things for this team are about to heat up. And I'll be there to root them on all the way through it. Go Tribe!

Holmes Sweet Holmes

In case you can't wait to see this in the theater with the new Harry Potter film this weekend, here's the first trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

Lacking supervision

Look at me finally getting a movie review done in a (relatively) timely manner. Although I'm just as likely to get recognition for my efforts as the three protagonists in Horrible Bosses. Played by Jason Bateman, Jason Sudekis, and Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), these three guys are having major problems with the titular superiors. Bateman's boss, played by Kevin Spacey, is a lying, manipulative psychopath. Sudekis struggles with his offensive, cokehead of a boss (plays by a nearly unrecognizable Colin Farrell). And Jennifer Aniston is causing havoc in Day's life by overtly sexually harrassing him (Oh, to have his problems).

The solution these guys come up with to deal with their problematic bosses is to murder them. Thanks to the help of Jamie Foxx (whose character name I can't even type here), they come up with a plan to off each other's boss, ala Throw Momma From the Train. This provides us with a number of stakeout/recon scenes that offer some awkward, yet funny moments.

It's a shame though that the film felt the need to rush us into this decision. The majority of the scenes meant to establish how horrible these guys' bosses can be seen in the film's trailers. While I didn't doubt that these guys were indeed terrible (Although again, how many people would complain about Aniston sexually harassing them, especially given how sexy she looked in this film). But there seemed to be a lot of untapped resources there in those scenes. Why not let these actors playing the bosses really let loose, especially since each of them seemed to be enjoying playing someone so nasty.

This remains a problem throughout the film. Everything stays one dimensional as we skip from one scene to the next as if there's some sort of plot checklist that needs to be accomplished with no regard to how deep we can explore the characters or their actions. By the time it reaches it's simplistic conclusion you keep expecting some additional wrinkle to be added, but it never comes. Before you know it, the credits are rolling, coupled with the blooper reel (always a trademark of a lazy comedy)

The actors are all good here. With maybe the exception of Charlie Day, who was a bit too loud and spastic here for my liking (and also, again, comes off a bit unsympathetic given his 'horrible' boss). I just wish each of them were given more. We get glimpses of their potential throughout the film. For instance, Bateman and Sudekis will start riffing on each other as they investigate one of their boss' houses, but just as things are starting to get good and funny we're already moving on to the next scene.

I wish the director Seth Gordon would have taken a page from someone like Judd Apatow and just let the camera keep rolling. And if he did and left a lot of stuff on the cutting room floor, then shame on him. If so, hopefully we can get a better 'extended' cut when it comes out on DVD. Otherwise, this will remain a solid comedy that failed to live up to its potential.

Perhaps I had too high of expectations coming in to the film. I'm sure there will be a lot of people that will really like this movie. I can certainly say that I laughed several times throughout it, but also felt like I should have been laughing more. Horrible Bosses is a film that seems to settle for middle management and never takes the opportunity to break through the glass ceiling. Grade: B-

Tribe Watch (All Star Break)

Record: 47-42

Standing: Second in AL Central

And so the Indians end up limping into the All-Star Break instead of finishing strong. Things had looked so promising earlier in the week though. We ended up taking two out of three from the Yankees and looked like we were finally coming out of our funk in the process. Unfortunately things peaked in the first game of the Toronto series when Travis Hafner hit that amazing walk-off grand slam to give us the win. It was all downhill after that, though, as we lost the last three to the Blue Jays and struggled to score in the process. As a result, Detroit managed to squeak back up into first place by a half game as well. As much as I would have liked to be in first place at the break, we're only a half game out and we've played two less games than the Tigers. What the Tribe needs to do is use this time wisely to rest up and come back out refocused so that they start playing like they did at the beginning of the year. As I mentioned in one of the other recent Tribe Watch posts, the month of July is a very easy schedule for the Indians. We need to take advantage of it, because things will get rough again come August. The first opportunity to rack up wins and give us some distance from Detroit comes on the road when we take on Baltimore in a four game series. The Orioles once again find themselves in the cellar of the AL East, so let's hope we can beat up on a lesser team. Until then, enjoy the All Star Game and Go Tribe!

NMR: How Do You Know

I guess I had one more film from 2010 to see after all. Then again, I didn't really think that this film had a chance to make it on my Top Ten list. Which is not to say that I didn't think there was a chance at one point. When you combine the skills and acclaim of director James L. Brooks with a fine cast that includes Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, and Jack Nicholson, it seems like you've got a real winner on your hands. So I was certainly surprised when the reviews were poor. Perhaps more surprising though was the weak response it received from audiences. On Netflix, the film has just barely over a 2 star rating. Given the generosity of Netflix viewers, that's pretty bad. But I had to see for myself if everyone was completely off base or not. While I would agree that it is not great, I think the biggest problem that most people had with the film is not really a flaw at all. The central story revolves around Witherspoon's character who at a crossroads both professionally and romantically. She's currently being wooed by two men and doesn't know who to be with. This type of plot is common in movies and can often be well received. The problem here is that the film doesn't make it clear which guy we should be rooting for. Both guys have flaws and those flaws are emphasized more than their strengths. Most of America is too stupid to appreciate this complex problem and wants to be told like sheep what the happy ending should be. So in that regard, I actually give the film credit and found the approach refreshing. With that said, the film does have problems. At his best James L. Brooks can develop characters that the audience can immediately become invested in and are engaged by (see As Good As It Gets). Here, with the exception of Reese's character, no one else is fully developed. Instead of creating rich characters, it felt like Brooks did nothing with Rudd and Wilson's characters and left it up to the actors to rely on their standby personas again (Wilson's laid-back and self-centered, while Rudd's a neurotic mess). The addition of a current events subplot involving Rudd and Nicholson (playing his father) and their potential financial scandal is boring and drags the film down. Despite the film's problems, I still like this cast a lot and enjoyed seeing them on screen together. I would not have recommended for anyone to see this in the theater, but I think watching it from the comfort of your home has softened the film's weaknesses and makes it possibly worth a recommendation if you're looking for a romantic film. Rating: ***