The Meyerowtiz Stories: Adam Sandler Can Act

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

This film tells the story of three children, played by Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller and Elizabeth Marvel who are brought back together after the sudden illness of their father played by Dustin Hoffman.

I genuinely do think that when he is trying, and not just trying to goof off with his friends and call it a film, Adam Sandler is a talented dramatic actor. You can see my point here as the film is far more of a character study and drama rather than a comedy film, there are jokes thrown in here and there but for the most part it plays it straight and Sandler excels. Sandler plays the often overlooked and taken for granted son well and you buy his complicated relationship with his dad, you can see the conflict going on within the character. Likewise, I think Ben Stiller also really rises to the dramatic mark here and nails the performance.

I appreciated what this film tried to do in an emotional sense, I thought it was very resonant and that the struggles and situations shown will ring true for a lot of people. I thought the film did justice to the bond between parent and child, showing just how messed up it can be, but that ultimately you can’t change it and can only make peace with it. I found the film to be effecting and it certainly knew how to work my heart strings and make me feel something.

Overall, a strong film proving that Adam Sandler can be a good actor when he wants to be.

Pros.

Nailing the emotion

Sandler

Stiller

Marvel

Cons.

Pacing issues

Hoffman’s father character is a bit one note

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Army Of Thieves: Once You Have Seen One Heist Film You Have Seen Them All

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Ludwig Dieter, played by Matthias Schweighofer, returns in a prequel to Army Of The Dead, in which Dieter finds himself at the centre of a series of international heists revolving around famous safes.

I enjoyed Ludwig Dieter in Army Of The Dead, but this film felt excessive. I don’t know why you go from having it be a heist story in a zombie apocalypse, to suddenly just a heist film. I thought the whole point of this universe was the fact that it featured a zombie outbreak? Yet this film almost goes out of its way to hide it, only showing us brief scenes on news broadcasts, and telling us about it in throwaway dialogue.

By doing this and having it just be a heist movie the film cripples itself. This film feels indistinguishable from any other heist film, was that the point? Though we have the same character from the other film back, it couldn’t feel further apart. Rather than manic zombie action we get the same set of generic heist characters we have seen hundreds of times before, with the same backstories. We see the same twists and turns, and the same ending as well, there is nothing new here. You will only find this film original if you have never seen a heist film before.

The only reason this film is not getting lower is because there are still a few good laughs to be had here, Schweighofer is still funny. Moreover, Nathalie Emmanuel has a great presence on-screen and she really brings something to this film. I liked the romance between Ludwig and Emmanuel’s Gwendoline over the course of the film as I found it to be genuinely effecting.

Overall, a needless follow up made better by Emmanuel.

Pros.

It is watchable

It has a few funny moments

Emmanuel is on strong form

Cons.

We have seen it all before

It does nothing with the zombies

The ending feels far too tided into the first film

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Billy Madison: Why Has No One Cancelled This Yet?

0.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A spoilt rich kid, played by Adam Sandler, must return to school despite being an adult.

I understand that to some this film is a comedy classic, I don’t see how that can be. I think this film highlights Sandler at his exploitative worst, early Sandler fare like this and The Waterboy want us to laugh at how dumb and stupid the central character is: which is cheap but done. However, where these films are particularly bad is Billy and Bobby, in The Waterboy, are almost certainly mentally handicap so the joke is no longer laughing at these characters because they are dumb but instead because they are disabled and that is sickening. We can also see this trend continue into later Sandler fare such as Sandy Wexler and Hubie Halloween.

Moreover, Sandler is at his most obnoxious here as well. There is no way in hell you will like the central character by the end of the film, whether it is the smug grin he constantly spouts, his dumb jokes or the voice Sandler does for the character. It is all grating.

Additionally, the romance between Sandler’s character and the teacher is problematic on a number of levels and feels to me like it is trying to play off the harmful fantasy of sleeping with the teacher, which is messed up for all kinds of reasons.

The humour of this film is just as grating as the rest of it, there is not one single funny line here and I know comedy is subjective, but unless you find disability and icky situations funny, you won’t be laughing much here. This film should be left in the rejects pile of the early noughties to die.

Overall, simply awful.

Pros.

It is short

Cons.

It is not funny

It feels exploitative towards those with disabilities

Sandler is incredibly obnoxious

The teacher student romance storyline needs to die

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In For A Murder: The Real Crime Here Is A Terrible Marriage

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The film revolves around a bored housewife, played by Anna Smolowik, as she becomes increasingly involved in trying to solve a murder.

This film was very eh for me, it had some moments of fun but for the most part it was just dull. The humour of the film was very much hit or miss and only made me laugh a few times, I don’t know if it is a different sensibility or something but it mostly didn’t work for me; humour is of course subjective.

I found the murder mystery aspects of the plot to be initially interesting but then quickly played out and stale. I think this is because the pacing of this film is wildly off and every scene feels a few minutes too long. Whenever the film presents you with an interesting idea it ruins it by overly exploring it.

In terms of acting I didn’t find anyone to be particularly either way, neither good nor bad rather just fine.

Overall, this film does have some moments of promise, however for the most part it is dull.

Pros.

Some promise to the murder mystery

A few funny moments

It’s watchable

Cons.

It is poorly paced

It becomes boring

The acting is all very flat

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Language Lessons: A Friend When You Need One The Most

4.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Adam, played by Mark Duplass, begins taking Spanish lessons after his husband Will, played by Desean Terry, gets them for him as a gift. Little does he know they will become a vital part of his life.

I went into this thinking it was going to be a quirky off beat comedy, as that is Duplass’s usual fare, however whilst that is a true assessment in part there is also a lot more going on beneath the surface with this film and it almost morphs into a character drama as it continues.

The film focuses on the relationship between Adam and Carino, played by Natalie Morales, his Spanish teacher. After the death of Adam’s Husband early in the film things shift dramatically, and though there are still comedic moments it becomes far more serious. However, I enjoyed that the film did not become dower at this point, and that there was still fun to be had.

Both Morales and Duplass give it there all here and though most of the film is just them talking into the camera, as the film is set over a series of online calls, each give powerhouse performances. The film really makes us the audience question our preconceived notions, and is not afraid to head into dark and possibly uncomfortable territory. There is a lot in this film that is implied but not shown, mentioned but not dwelled on, and in that aspect I find this film captures life.

I found the ending to be incredibly heart-warming even if the larger implications might not be so good. It was nice to watch this friendship grow over the course of the film and in many ways it felt natural and real, as though the film was actually a reflection of the two actors friendship in real life.

Overall, this is one of the sweetest and most true films you may see this year.

Pros.

Morales

Duplass

The genuine feeling of friendship

The emotion

The ending

Cons.

It can be hard to watch at times

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Cabin In The Woods: The Old Gods Want Blood

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A group of friends go out to stay in a cabin in the woods, insert Family Guy joke about saying the title of the film, and of course once they get out there things start to go awry.

I am a big fan of this film, minus the pervy Joss Whedon elements but we will get to those, and think that if you are a fan of the slasher genre this is a must watch. There is something so smart and so loving about this film, it both sends up the slasher genre but also revels in its tropey goodness. I think the entire meta reading of this film, as we the audience are the old gods wanting to see our slasher films play out the way they always do is entirely novel and well done.

Likewise the film does a good job of making you care about the characters, with Chris Hemsworth’s character being a delightful revelation. Hemsworth plays the dumb jock but the film goes out of its way to flip that cliché and do something new with it, the same can be said for the rest of the archetypal roles of the slasher. In that regard I thought Kristen Connolly’s Dana made for an excellent final girl and I liked that she failed to prevent the disaster at the end as it made her feel more genuine and real.

Furthermore, as a huge horror fan I got a lot out of the vending machine of monsters scene inside the facility where we were treated to tons and tons of references and homages, it was easily my favourite scene of the film.

Sadly, now we must talk about the issues. A lot of these issues boil down to one thing, camera angles and pervy intent. A lot of the female characters in this film are shot in a way where the camera is often not looking at their faces and is instead looking at other areas, this becomes incredibly transparent as the film goes on. I would like to blame this on Joss Whedon as we know he has a habit of doing this kind of thing from his other work, however Drew Goddard is not above suspicion as well. Regardless it is needless.

Overall, a strong film made stronger if you are a hardcore horror fan.

Pros.

Hemsworth

Connelly

The ending

The vending machine of monsters

Cons.

The perviness

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Night Teeth: Driving Miss Bloodsucker

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Benny, played by Jorge Lendeborg Jr, finds himself in the middle of a vampire turf war after he covers his brother’s, played by Raul Castillo, shift as a driver.

I enjoyed this film and thought that it had enough uniqueness to it that it stands out within the vampire sub-genre. It is very stylised and this again helps to give it flair with an almost comic book esque aesthetic, the action again reflects this with a lot of the big fight scenes feeling straight from the page.

Lendeborg Jr is a fine leading man, but he is greatly outdone by Debbie Ryan as Blair, one of the two vampires being driven around. Lendeborg Jr and Ryan have an undeniable amount of chemistry together on screen and their romance is very believable. Moreover, Ryan’s character is also the most complex with her being this killing machine but also longing for more, with the idea that she has been forced or conditioned into this life never too far from the viewers mind.

The two areas where I felt the film was lacking was its villain and its originality. In terms of villain we have Alfie Allen as victor the big bad vampire boss who is making a play for the whole city, now the issue with Allen’s character is that we really aren’t shown him doing very much yet we are expected to believe he is a threat. This becomes a big issue when you get to the final part of the film where he is supposedly super powerful and unbeatable yet we hadn’t got a whiff of that before as it is not well set up. Moreover, in terms of originality, though I said the film is fairly unique it is also quite reliant on past tropes which serve as a disservice to it.

Overall, a strong vampire film that benefits from casting Debby Ryan.

Pros.

Ryan

The romance

Some interesting new ideas

Cons.

A little too reliant on tropes

Alife Allen is wasted

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Only Murders In The Building: Series Overview

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Three residents in an apartment building, played by Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez, start a true crime podcast in the hopes of solving a murder in their building

This will act as a review of the series as a whole rather than as a review of a single episode.

For the most part I thought this series was delightful, the characters were warm and likeable, the series really managed to nail the emotional side of their personalities as well helping them to feel like well-rounded characters.

Moreover, the central whodunit mystery is explored well and kept interesting. The answer to who the killer is is unexpected and sets up further questions for the second season to explore. My only issue in this regard is that there are a few too many red herrings and storylines that lead to nowhere during the investigation that start to feel increasingly like the writers trying to fill time, as such the narrative could have feel done with being cut down and maybe even being one or two episodes less.

I think Steve Martin and Martin Short are on good form here as you would expect them to be, it is nice to see Martin in something again as it has been a while and he and Short have terrific on screen chemistry together. Though both men are outdone by Gomez. Selena Gomez is underused if anything in the series but when she does get screentime she often steals the show, there is so much going on underneath with her character and we as an audience get the feeling the show hasn’t even really scratched the surface, she is easily the breakout star of the series.

Overall, a fun murder mystery series that if anything is too ambitious and as such suffers in a few places.

Pros.

The mystery

The characters

The ending

The return of Steve Martin

Cons.

A few too many subplots

A lot of needless characters

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The French Dispatch: Too Much Wes Anderson?

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A series of stories making up the final issue of a well respected fictional news publication.

I have been a fan of Wes Anderson for some time, and for the most part I enjoy his style and his noticeable eccentricities, however, here I find he has gone too far into himself. This film embraces Anderson’s filmmaking philosophy to the Nth degree, serving as a series of barely connected skits with constant movement and a loose connective whole, this is not a good thing as it makes the whole piece very hard to follow.

Each tale and indeed each scene within seemed to jump from one thing to another with such speed as to make it impossible to know what was going on.

Worse yet, of the four pieces the only one that is enjoyable, the first featuring Owen Wilson, is incredibly short and then that’s it we don’t see Wilson again until the end of the film. The other three features suffer from the opposite problem, which is to say they drag on, and on- to the point of boredom.

That is not to say this film is bad there are moments of enjoyment to be found whether that is a chuckle, or a delightfully off beat Anderson character. The best amongst these is Timothee Chalamet’s Zeffirelli. Other than in The King Chalamet has never impressed me in the way he has other people and I have long viewed him as overrated. This film counters that as Chalamet fits in perfectly and easily captures the essence of a Wes Anderson character easily becoming the best character in the whole film, as such I am hoping that Chalamet becomes Anderson’s new muse and the two keep making films together for a long time.

Overall, though there are good elements to the film, it suffers from terrible pacing and a feeling of indulgence on the directors part, it could be said this film is too Wes Anderson for most Wes Anderson fans,

Pros.

Chalamet

A few funny moments

Owen Wilson’s segment

Cons.

Three of the four segments are only okay

The pace is awful

The lack of a coherent larger narrative

Most of the actors are wasted

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Copshop: Balloons Make A Great Shield To Mask Your Identity

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A fixer, Frank Grillo, and a hitman, Gerard Butler, find themselves locked together in a police station, with a rookie police officer, Alexis Louder, trying to figure out what is going on and why everyone wants the fixer dead.

Very much like with Joe Carnahan’s other work this film is very stylised, moreover it benefits from being this way: having a very distinctive visual pleat that draws on grindhouse and exploitation elements whilst keeping things fresh.

Surprisingly following Carnahan’s Boss Level, I find Frank Grillo not in best shape here. I understand the script wants us to view Grillo’s character as an unfeeling cold escape artist, but the film does not do enough to set that up, rather it just makes leaps in character development that just assume the audience is already viewing the character that way, which they most likely aren’t.

It is because of this that Butler really becomes the star of the show and manages to outperform Grillo seizing the lime light and the potential sequel. The only threat to Butler in this regard is Toby Huss, as the secondary hitman sent in to clean up Butler’s characters mistakes. Huss steals the show and has sone of the most memorable lines of dialogue I have heard in a long time, I know the film kills him off but if they do do a sequel he needs to come back in some way. Maybe a twin brother.

The crime thriller elements were engaging if a little generic at times, however they were elevated by the quirky personality of the film and some of the more out there comedic moments that strangely not only land but work.

Overall, the style and the humour elevate what could otherwise be a by the numbers thriller.

Pros.

Huss

Butler

The personality

Cons.

A generic plot

A few issues with character development

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