"Role Models" (quality rating: 7)
Director: David Wain
Screenplay: Paul Rudd, David Wain, Elizabeth Banks
Cast: Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd, Jane Lynch
Time: 1 hr., 35 min.
R (crude and sexual content, vulgarity, nudity) (1:35)
A fairly funny comedy considering its overload of foul-mouthed gaglines, this has a suprisingly high laughs level which blind-sides you with comic capers when you hardly expect them.
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"Role Models," one is reluctant to admit, gets a lot of mirth out of inventive locker room humor that has a way of making you laugh even though you don't know why. The ongoing theme is that boys of any age just never grow up and it turns out, in this plot, to be the kids, not the grown-up guys, who get the most laughs.
The film has an amazing flow of serviceable chuckles based on caricatures who, although fitted into a very formula flick, maintain a peppery consistency all the way through. Generally, in fact, the movie strides with such lively energy, with never an unattended moment of comedy, that one must admit that profane dialogue can actually find a place, if force-fitted, in our complex society.
Misanthropic Danny (Paul Rudd) and doofus buddy Wheeler (Sean William Scott) try to get kids off drugs by selling energy drinks to school systems as they drive their delivery route in a novelty monster truck. But while on their own energy drink binge, Danny, stressed out over family problems and, having been rejected by longtime girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks) because he's so morose, goes nuts and gets both himself and Wheeler in legal trouble. Beth, a lawyer, deals with the court to get them off if they'll put in 150 hours with "Sturdy Wings," a big brother kind of public service outfit for troubled kids. It's run by Gayle Sweeney (Jane Lynch). who's pretty much an off-balance neurotic who mixes discipline with explosive spunk.
So here's Wheeler, a sex-obsessed party animal by nature whose only thoughts are toward rolling in the hay, assigned to a filthy-mouthed, hard-tempered pre-teen, Ronnie, who loses no time in jerking Wheeler around into a situation in which he can have him arrested as a pedophile. That resolved, it's clear that Ronnie needs a father figure. All Ronnie does now is wave wooden swords with his other geek pals. Danny's also got his special problem boy to guide, Augie, who has no idea what growing up is about. So what we've got here is two immature misfits on a project to guide younger misfits.
As to character development, if you care about that at all, one notices that this happens only up to the point where the two guys get into the Sturdy Wings settings. After that, the kids take over the screen, Danny and Wheeler being relegated to backboards to bounce off. The really rudimentary situations and plot are turned, by the kids, into generators of lots of laughs.
The ending, suggesting that they're all humans who really want to relate to each other, is obligatory, but OK.
"Soul Men" (quality rating: 7)
Director: Malcolm D. Lee
Screenplay: Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes, Sharon Leal, Jennifer Coolidge
Time: 1 hr., 43 min.
Rating: R (nonstop vulgarity, sexual content, nudity) (1:43)
Is it possible to view profane language as a verbal art form in itself? Well, let's do it ,says "Soul men."
This is a deftly assembled movie which marches to a hard beat and in which the river of vile verbiage actually gets integrated into the film's whole design, making itself even indispensable. The particular brand of black putdown banter, inexorably evolved over the decades, is humor from the gut, a no-nonsense "vulgarity" which actually transcends the conventional way in which dirty words are used and flows naturally as its own tongue, smoothly and expressively instead of in the nasty, intrusive way of films which often seem to drag in obscene words just because the writers and directors think we expect them.
This is an unintentionally ironic title, with Bernie Mac having actually died tragically in August.
It's actually hard to categorize this film in terms of genre. It's definitely drama but its substance invites comedy at a crude but colorful way and lets it flow organically. Most delightful is the perfect pitch performance of Samuel L. Jackson, easily one of Hollywood's most versatile stars. Of no lesser impact is a vigorous job done by Bernie Mac.
In this memory lane road film, the two key characters had been back-up singers of a long-ago popular group, now aged and of no more use to the modern media world. Seems that promoters are urging them, now 20 years later, to rejoin in order to offer tribute to their once lead singer who has just died. This will be dicey because the two men bear mutual resentment, this stemming from a love rivalry over the same woman.
First of all, Floyd (Bernie Mac) is morose anyway, living a life of aimless leisure as an insomniac with a hip replacement. And Louis (Samuel L. Jackson), now a pauper, has nonetheless retained his pride even though he's an ex-con living in cellars.
So they set out from L.A. in Floyd's vintage chartreuse Eldorado convertible for the great musical reunion at Harlem's Apollo, all the while chasin' skirts as they pop into town after town with Floyd poppin' Viagra. They'll partake of the fast musical life of Memphis as they stop in cowboy roadside taverns and anyplace else where they can do a gig and bring down the house, all the time viewing each other with shared antagonism. A significant plot turn comes when the two men stop at the home of lovely Cleo (Sharon Leal), whom we gather is the daughter of one of them, probably the bone of contention for both.
Strangely, you will find yourself chuckling again and again at the two guys' digs at each other even though you sense a vital relationship here. It's not easy viewing, but then, almost immediately, you sense that you wouldn't want that.
"Madagascar:Escape 2 Africa" (quality rating: 6)
(All-animated feature)
Directors: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
Screenplay:
Voices: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Bernie Mac, Alec Baldwin
Time: 1 hr., 29 min.
PG (some mild crude humor)
Wacky but not witty.
Good kiddie flick, folks. Take the tots. All ingredients of the original have been given new attention in an effort to maintain its appeal. The pace is peppery and the whole design seems to be to mesmerize the kids with a parade of eye candy. For you as an adult? Well, it's probably an underachiever.
Amidst the slapstick comedy in "Madagascar:Escape 2 Africa" there are some new characters, including a zesty old grandmama from New York who does karate. The film's colors are ever more vivid and the rhythm of camera movements is enhanced, with shot length at a median length of three seconds. Talking is mostly loud and urgent. There's also some adult-oriented funny stuff, like having to negotiate with the monkey union for health benefits.
Various themes are pulled in from environmental material and many other movies but the flat-out observation is unavoidable that this just comes down to an endless series of visually catchy images that are madcap but often monotonous. The dialogue is more noisy than funny, seemingly struggling to balance between grown-up references and kid stuff. The music is totally forgettable.
In this sequel to "Madagascar" all the charming animal characters are back: light-footed Alex the lion (voice: Ben Stiller), sensitive Melman the giraffe (voice: David Schwimmer), smarty-mouthed Marty the zebra (voice: Chris Rock), big mama Gloria the hippo (voice: Jada Pinkett Smith), zany King Julien (voice:Sacha Baron Cohen), his sidekick Maurice (voice: Cedric the Entertainer) and the penguins.
We recollect that all these mislocated New Yorkers from the concrete and steel zoo had been, by nutsy circumstances, stranded on the island of Madagascar located off the East African coast. They really wanna get back. But what resources do they have? Well, there is that crashed plane. And there you go -- the ingenious penguins, with military precision, and mainly digital magic, actually make it flightworthy.
Umm . . . kind of. Seems that, with its engines smoking, it'll go just so far, which is, like, over the great savannah of Africa where they crash land. So you'd think they're now in their natural home, right? Well, they are, but they are not natural in their "natural" home. They've been raised by the rule and animal interactions of the zoo, not the communities of the jungle.
So while they discover their roots, they also must confront a whole bunch of real conflicts. And that's going to involve relatives of so long ago, romance intrigues, a deadly drought, and a self-styled medicine man who wants a rain god sacrifice for the volcano. Alex will be recognized as the long-missing son of the local pride's chief, Zuba (the late Bernie Mac). Ah, but the evil egomaniac Makunga (Alec Baldwin) wants the throne for himself and he will humiliate Alex to get it. There will also be some conflicts with tourists and hunters pointing up their crassness.
The usual obligatory themes of self-esteem, self-confidence and learning your identity and independence are there.
Generally, the film will work modestly as holiday fun for the tykes. If you got nothing out of the original, you will do no better here. It's very lively.