Summer School - 1987

"Summer School" - 1987
Dir. by Carl Reiner - 1 hr. 37 min.

Official Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

There are movies, that for the life of me, I couldn't explain why I wanted to watch.  Worse, I've seen "Summer School" more than once, so I should know better.  I don't even really have much nostalgia for the '80s, either.  I guess what I could say is that, when "The Family Guy" makes jokes about '80s movie formulas, this movie right here is what they're talking about.  And yet, in about thirty ways, this movie could have been so, so much worse, that you almost have to respect the talent it took for a movie about a proto-slacker beach bum discovering his joy for teaching amidst a group of misfits stuck having to go to summer school because they're all really stupid to not entirely suck, credits to credits.

Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon) is a high school phys ed teacher who gets wrangled into teaching summer school English by virtue of being the last teacher out of the parking lot on the last day, because the guy who was supposed to teach that class won a scratch-it lottery (which must have paid out a lot better back then) and blows it off last second.  The class he's inherited include a narcoleptic, a pregnant girl, a dumb jock, a frequently inebriated pair of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" fans (who do a paper, jointly, on Rick Baker), a hot foreign girl, a nerdy kid with no neck, and a surfer chick who wants to be Freddy's Lolita.  Freddy quickly gets in trouble, and tries to save his job with a wager; if all of Freddy's students pass the English test they all had to fail to get stuck in this situation, he gets to keep his job.  And oh yeah, the teacher that ends up helping Freddy (and that Freddy is sweet on) is dating the Vice Principal, who hates Freddy.

There's two main things that make "Summer School" bearable: Mark Harmon and Kirstie Alley.  Harmon's character could easily be a boor, very easily be wholly unlikable, and yet, doesn't ever come off that way.  I'm not saying you're going to love Freddy Shoop, but if you take the character as written, there are so many pitfalls that an actor could have fallen into (like playing his naivety as manipulative, or self-serving, or as a run-of-the-mill horndog, for instances), and any of them would have wrecked the film.  On the second point, at this point in time, it might be difficult to remember Kirstie Alley as anything other than tabloid fodder.  But in 1987, she was at the peak of her comedic powers.  This movie must've been made right before she started on "Cheers," and before she made a string of comedies that are the very definition of what a low budget comedy looked like in its time (like "Look Who's Talking" and "Madhouse"), but she was something special as a comedic actress.  For her part, her not being easy to win over was believable, and believable motivation for Harmon's character.  It's a pretty straight-forward role, the girl who motivates the guy to do better, but she comes off like someone you'd actually try harder for (rather than just being a piece of arm candy), and brings some intelligence to the movie, and in a way that's not annoying or off-putting.  Plus, this:

As for the rest of it, there's definitely some capital-h Hijinks.  Part of Freddy's deal to get the kids to work harder is that he'll do each of them a favor, which involves things like driving lessons, an in-class screening of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," a bed for the sleepy guy, an unexplained solo trip to a strip club on Ladies' Night, being a tackling dummy, subbing in as a Lamaze coach, and so much more.  The good news is that eventually everyone gets a taste for learning, and it's not entirely a bribery situation.  And it's an '80s movie, so you know that the stuffy Vice Principal is going to get his comeuppance.  I mean, this is the textbook for the formula.  There's even a montage!

I always kind of want to hate this movie, but I just can't do it.  It's kind of funny, it's well put together.  I know I'll probably break down and watch it again someday.  All the reasons that I want to dislike it for are the things that hold up best - the utterly '80s-ness of the whole thing, the stock characters and plot.  But within that, everyone does their job with more enthusiasm and charm than was strictly necessary, and that goes a long way, especially in a comedy.  So I can't hate "Summer School" at all.  Besides, a dude on roller skates and wearing only short shorts getting thrown in jail?  That's probably always going to be funny.

2 / 5 - Streaming

Escape Plan - 2013

"Escape Plan" - 2013
Dir. by Mikael Hafstrom - 1 hr. 55 min.

Official Trailer

by Clayton Hollfield

First off, Sylvester Stallone has a really lumpy face.  That's actually an asset in films like this, but it stood out upon watching "Escape Plan," and I thought I'd get that out of the way.  Also of note, "Escape Plan" isn't going to go down in the top handful of films that either Stallone or co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger has done, but at the same time, it wasn't "Wild Hogs" or "Space Cowboys," with constant jokes about how old the stars are, and their assortments of balms and ointments.  Instead, this is a straight-up thriller, basically physically solving a seemingly unsolvable puzzle, and makes good use of the people involved, and if you're down with this sort of thing, you won't regret watching it.

Ray Breslin (Stallone) make a living escaping from prisons.  Like, super max security prisons, even from solitary confinement.  He owns a security consulting firm built around selling his particular skill-set to those who would need it, abetted by his "techno-thug," Hush (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson), resident female skeptic, Abigail (Amy Ryan), and business specialist, Lester Clark (Vincent D'Onofrio).  A woman comes in with a dodgy offer, claiming to be from the C.I.A., but with impossible and unfriendly circumstances, and yet with a sufficiently attractive fistful of dollars.  So a day later, Ray is abducted and thrown into a very daunting and harsh prison.  Upon landing in the prison, Emil (Schwarzenegger) slowly befriends Ray, and they work together to first figure out where the hell they are, and then to find a way out of where they are.

I joked ahead of time that I was going to be sorely disappointed if there weren't any explosions here, and that nearly happened.  "Escape Plan" relies a lot more heavily on tension, and personal physical violence (and a pressing system) than pyrotechnics.  And even though both Stallone and Schwarzenegger are clearly still in pretty good shape, it's not a shirtless kind of movie, nor a wall-to-wall action kind of movie.  This is about solving a puzzle when there seemingly aren't any clues to start with, and surviving the circumstances.  While I found the set-up interesting (at least interesting enough to catch the movie in the first place), I can't say that the film gives you a chance to solve things for yourself.  Honestly, the solutions are too complicated to do that, but when Ray breaks out of the first prison (to show you that he's really good at this, instead of just telling you that and hoping you'll take their word for it), I think viewers will find themselves more amazed that this character can make something out of nearly nothing than seeing the puzzle and having the character beat them to a solution.

The suspense of the bigger job that Ray is hired for is enough to carry the movie.  Although both stars bust off a couple of good one-liners along the way, this is also not the kind of free-wheeling, blowing up everything while caring not even a little bit kind of film.  I bring this up because a big part of why someone would want to go see "Escape Plan" is also the same reason that the two "Expendables" movies have done well - nostalgia.  And this film is not like a lost production from the 1980s.  To everyone's credit, they are not just trying to repackage an old product and pass it off as being fresh; they've made a movie where the main characters are older because they are, and they're not trying to pretend they're not.  "Escape Plan" also doesn't feel like the sort of movie that could have starred anyone.  If it were Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson here, you might question if either of them were really smart enough to be an escape artist, specializing in impossible situations (no insult to either, but neither man has made a career playing brilliant men to date).  The main annoyance I had was that the people who had weird quirks were immediately obviously bad guys (because they had quirks instead of death glares), but I can't get too mad about it.  This is not a stage production of "Hamlet."

On the whole, I was glad that I caught "Escape Plan," and especially on a big screen.  It's not going to blow anyone's mind, it's probably not going to be in line for any year-end awards.  But it's intended to be a couple of hours of entertainment, preferably for people who have enjoyed Stallone's and Schwarzenegger's work over the years, and who don't feel the need to nitpick things to death.  I mean, it's Rambo and the Terminator side-by-side, and that's pretty cool.  I can't imagine needing to watch it again, but there are always colds and viruses floating around, and oddball movies on cable all around the clock.

2 / 5 - Theatre

In a Lonely Place - 1950

"In a Lonely Place" - 1950
Dir. by Nicholas Ray - 1 hr. 34 min.

Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

There's a top tier of Humphrey Bogart films, films like "The Maltese Falcon," or "The Big Sleep," or "Casablanca," that are not only fine work, but stand at the top of film history.  There's also some fluff, inconsequential films that every actor has to their credit.  "In a Lonely Place" is a notch below Bogart's best work, yet still stands up as a really good movie; one you'd want to track down once you got the biggest hits of Bogart's career out of the way.  It's a very solid film noir, expertly directed by Nicholas Ray (who would go on to direct "Rebel Without a Cause" a handful of years later), and with a strong streak of fatalism, where even joy is tempered by the suspicion that something is lurking in the immediate future.

Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) is a screenwriter, and a pretty successful one.  But he's been unable to write much lately, and is having an adaptation of a novel pressed on him by his agent, Mel (Art Smith).  Dix isn't particularly interested, not just in this project, but in much of anything.  He seems to approach life with a bemused detachment, which people frequently take the wrong way.  Dixon's solution: the coat-check girl, Mildred (Martha Stewart - no, not that one), has read the book, so he takes her back to his apartment to tell him the story, thus avoiding having to read it himself.  After getting the gist of the story, he sends her off to the nearest taxi stand and a fistful of cash, to get home.  She never makes it there, getting abducted and murdered in the wee hours of the morning.  Dixon is the obvious suspect, having taken her home from the restaurant she worked in, under what sounds like a bizarre pretext.  Through the course of the investigation, Dixon is introduced to one of his neighbors, a low-level actress named Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), and their meeting proves fortuitous.

There are a few things that are going to jump out about this film to modern audiences.  First is that the main character, Dixon, isn't particularly likable.  Bogart had a weird ability to play unlikable characters who do bad things, and still make you care about him.  Dixon is a volatile, controlling man who lays hands on people more than once, but those are the only moments where he really breaks out of his detachment from emotional responses, and his detachment baffles people around him.  Honestly, a lot of this character, and the other character's reactions to Dixon, seem to come straight from Albert Camus' "The Stranger," which was also sort of a crime story, despite it's reputation as a work of philosophy.  He doesn't have much sympathy for anyone around him, only coming alive to violence.  The crux of the story is that while we, the audience, know that Dixon didn't commit the murder, no one else does in the story.  For Laurel, who finds herself entwined in a romantic relationship with Dixon, the question of where Dixon's line is gnaws at her conscience.

The crime aspect of the story is secondary to Dixon and Laurel's relationship.  Dixon is established as difficult, but Laurel herself is fleeing another relationship, and spends a good deal of effort at keeping people at arm's length.  Either of them pursuing any relationship would seem to be built on shaky ground, but they can't help themselves.  And then, when doubts start creeping into Laurel's mind, she can't help that either.  The whole thing is doomed from the start.  The third act of "In a Lonely Place" is absolutely phenomenal; claustrophobic, full of delusions, the stakes growing larger, impending doom, and knowing that any joy in life is temporary.  The climax of the film (which I won't spoil) takes place in Laurel's apartment, and it just kicks my ass every time I see this film (this is the fourth or fifth time I've watched it).  When you see two admittedly flawed people going all in to try and make something work, only to be undone by timing and outside forces, it's not hard to see this being a pattern in both characters' lives, and it's very easy to understand exactly why they are the way they are.

There's a pair of quotes from this movie that jump out.  The biggest is a line that Dixon has in mind for the screenplay he's writing, but sums up this movie better.  He says, "I was born when she kissed me.  I died when she left me.  I lived a few weeks while she was with me."  It's a fantastic line, and resonant in it's context - both characters are aware that they're living on borrowed time.  But equally good comes in a scene where Laurel, who doesn't really have any friends, confides in Dixon's policeman friend's wife that she was scared, and that she had gone there to have someone laugh at her fears.  But with growing terror, Laurel says, "But you're not laughing."  It's the turning point, where Laurel isn't a girlfriend, but a caged animal looking for escape.

"In a Lonely Place" isn't quite on par with the top noir films, or Bogart's best films (but not much is), but it's a fantastic story with unique characters, and full of emotion.  It's only flaw is that it has Bogart in it, and was directed by Nicholas Ray; it's only second-best by comparison.  But it's a movie that I keep returning to over and over, both one of the most romantic and one of the most emotionally crushing movies I've ever seen.  I'm not saying that you need a box of tissues at hand, but it might not hurt to have one or two handy when things start wrapping up.

4 / 5 - TV

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - 2013

"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" - 2013
Dir. by Peter Jackson - 2 hrs. 41 min.

Trailer #3

by Clayton Hollifield

Going into the second movie of a trilogy, you have to know that you're in for the bummer installment.  In a three-act story, the end of the second act should set in motion whatever needs to be resolved in the third act.  Usually, movies aren't sprawling trilogies, and this all plays out over the course of a couple of hours (instead of seven or eight, when we're all done and before the extended versions hit home video).  If you want to see the template for this, you can consult the original Star Wars trilogy, where "The Empire Strikes Back" is the bummer movie.  So, entering "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" (and much of a downer title is that?), you should expect that things are not going to end up well for Gandalf, Bilbo, and the thirteen dwarves.  So no complaining!

On the heels of the first film, we find Gandalf (Ian McKellan), Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), and the rest of the dirty dozen on the precipice of a giant forest that must be traversed due to time constraints.  Gandalf abandons the crew when something more pressing pops up, and the dwarves end up imprisoned in Elvish prisons, but still make friends.  When they escape, thanks to Bilbo's ingenuity, they continue their quest to reach the Lonely Mountain, and the dwarves can reclaim their ancestral land from a giant, possibly slumbering dragon named Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch).

If you're familiar with the book, you'll know that this is the segment that contains both the giant evil spiders, and the escape down a river in wine barrels.  And, since Smaug is in the title of the movie, it's not really a spoiler to say that you'll also finally get a good look at the dragon (and all the riches he's hoarding).  Gandalf also has a solitary battle at a castle, which is separate from the rest of the dwarves and Bilbo's quest.  In terms of the overall tone, the first installment was more light-hearted than this one, but then again, number two out of three has to be the bummer movie.  What hasn't changed is the flair for exotic, vast settings, but a lot of them take place in vast, yet confining places (there was a lot of open space in the first installment).  In terms of the big pieces, I found the giant spider material a little underwhelming, not quite up to what comes across in the book.  On the other hand, the wine-barrel escape was spectacular, one of those action sequences that starts out well, tops itself, and then tops itself again after you think there's nowhere further to go.

Part of the joy of these films is seeing places that you've read about, and getting to nose around in them a bit.  The forest is appropriately awful and maddening, the wood elves' land is as interesting as any of the kingdoms shown in the first film.  The Harbor town, Esgaroth, is a foggy and grim place, ruled by a corrupt king played by Stephen Fry.  And finally, inside the Lonely Mountain lays untold riches and a foul-tempered dragon, and it's as awesome as if Uncle Scrooge's Money Pit had come to life.  Heck, even the bar that the film opens in, with a meeting between Thorin and Gandalf, is exactly the kind of bar I'd love to kill a few drinks in.  The entire world is appealing, and unique, and detailed, and widely varied.  This is the kind of movie you need to see on the biggest screen possible, so that you can wallow in the details and be overwhelmed by it all.

On the other hand, there isn't a ton of character development.  Gandalf is Gandalf, and he's got his own thing going on.  And by this point in the story, it's not really Bilbo's story, more a series of battles (as spectacular as they are) than a strengthening of character.  Only Thorin really develops, cracks appearing in his facade, with the very real possibility of power and riches within his grasp.  It's hard to complain about that; it's difficult to say that this film really stands on its own.  It relies on the emotional depth created in the first film to give resonance to the action here, which is fair enough.  Truthfully, we're having a very, very long film meted out a chunk at a time, and the final judgment of merit will come next December, when the entire thing is available.  Until then, it's enough that this one, for the most part, lived up to what I hoped to see on the big screen, and in a couple of instances exceeded it, and that I had a good time watching "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug."  And, more important, that I'll definitely be at the theatre when part three is ready, anxiously waiting to see Smaug get his.

3.5 / 5 - Theatre (3D)

Lenny - 1974

"Lenny" - 1974
Dir. by Bob Fosse - 1 hr. 51 min.

Official Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

At this point in time, Lenny Bruce might not be a household name.  And among those who have heard of him, it's much more likely that they've heard of him, but are not familiar with his work.  I don't know that "Lenny" is the sort of thing that would shed a ton of light on exactly why he was infamous in his time, although it is a straightforward bio of Bruce.  "Lenny" was released eight years after Bruce's death, so at that point, explaining why he was of importance was less important that getting into who he was and where he came from.

Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman) was a cabaret comedian, and not a particularly good one.  Before his stand-up took off, he fell in love with a stripper named Honey (Valerie Perrine), and married her quickly.  Trying to get her out of stripping, he concocted a double act with her that had her singing instead, but it didn't take off either, and they both had to fall back on what they knew.  And somewhere along the way, they both started using heroin, which would dog the both of them, although not usually at the same time.  As their marriage fell apart, Lenny started pursuing a more ragged, free-flowing, and yes, obscene stand-up act that gained him a lot of notoriety, a vastly improved cash-flow, and the attention of the law.  Lenny was repeatedly arrested on obscenity charges (largely over language), and sometimes on narcotics charges, and the combination dragged him down, until he met his premature end.

Mimicking comedy is very difficult to do well.  There's so much that's intensely personal and unique about each performer that even if you get the timing right (which is the ultimate challenge), and the words right, it can still not be entirely funny coming out of the wrong mouth.  It's one of the reasons I suspect that we rarely see films about comedians; even hitting the target can be damned near impossible. Think about someone attempting to do a film about John Belushi, Chris Farley, or Mitch Hedberg (and doing one of those now isn't even as close on the heels of their deaths as "Lenny" was on Bruce's), and how easily it could turn into a a bad cover-version rendition of their comedic greatest hits.  I'm not sure which films Dustin Hoffman made his reputation as an actor on, but this has to be one of them.  It's certainly in his hottest period, and this was a very challenging role, one that Hoffman nails as closely as one can.  Although "Lenny" is fairly deep in getting a psychiatric reading on him, the role requires Hoffman to behave without the same level of self-awareness or introspection as the film provides.  Probably the best compliment that I can pay is that there were times I forgot I was watching Dustin Hoffman, and was fully immersed in the film and what was happening.  A lot of credit has to go to Valerie Perrine, as well, and not just because she played a stripper and actually went through with what you'd expect of someone in that profession.  It felt like at least half of the film was hers, partially because there are interview reconstructions that run through the film, which let her character have her say, after everything was said and done.

One of the most striking things about "Lenny" is the use of sound.  There wasn't much of a soundtrack, just parts of Miles Davis songs used, but there are points in the film where extended periods of silence are used to enforce a sort of awkwardness and discomfort onto the crowd.  In one instance, Lenny talks Honey into a dope-fueled three-way, and instead of it being super sexy, it feels like the worst thing in the world.  I can't even imagine how brutal that scene would have felt in a theatre, with an audience; it was hard enough to watch at home.  An another scene, Lenny is in no condition to perform, but is trotted out on stage anyways over his mother's protests, high as a kite, wearing one shoe, no pants, and an overcoat.  After stumbling through some half-baked material, and losing control in front of the audience, he just stands there in front of the audience, microphone in hand, saying nothing to the silent crowd for what feels like forever and a day.  Considering Bruce's courtroom meltdown near the end of the film, where he begs for the judge not to take his words away, it feels like the use of sound (or the absence of sound) is representational of Bruce's state of mind.  His normal speech patterns are fast, rapid-fire, and energetic.  And as long as he's talking, as long as there's some chatter, things are okay.  But the silence, whether it's from drug use slowing down his mind, or being enforced by the police, that's the imprisonment that he can't stand.

This is a very good film.  In 1974, George Carlin was following down Bruce's comedic path, and getting in some trouble for it, so it was relevant to show people where that came from.  The approach to the material feels tragic; that's probably because a comedian who died at forty from drug abuse, partially because he was being worn into the ground by the constant threat of imprisonment and the guarantee of financial ruin, wasn't yet a cliche.  Losing Bruce was felt honestly, partially because he was one of the first to take comedy from strip clubs and into something that could stand on it's own, and be culturally relevant.  This movie, while not wallowing in his misery, doesn't shy away from showing the price he personally paid to do that, and what happens when people who have power over you don't understand (or just don't like) what you're doing.  "Lenny" isn't a happy-time movie, it's not going to give you warm fuzzies.  It's not entirely difficult viewing, and when it is, it's because of good filmmaking getting across the emotions.  I don't know if it's possible to watch "Lenny" now without having the ghosts of other comedians who died young in the same manner hanging over the proceedings, but it's to the film's credit that it's possible to forget momentarily.

4 / 5 - TV (HD)

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe called Quest - 2011

"Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest" - 2011
Dir. by Michael Rapaport - 1 hr. 37 min.

Official Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

If you're not familiar with A Tribe Called Quest, I'm not sure you can call yourself a rap fan.  As Pharrell Williams himself states in the movie (whom you might know from songs like Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" or Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," to name two of a billion you've heard of), Tribe was the musical father to people like himself, J Dilla, and Kanye West.  If you're not into rap, Tribe is the kind of group that might change that. They were the first (for my money) to incorporate jazz into hip-hop successfully and sustain it, they didn't rap about clubs and cars.  Ah hell, take three or four minutes and watch their video for "I Lost My Wallet in El Segundo."

"Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest" is the story of this group of musicians; Q-Tip (the charismatic leader), Phife Dawg (the second rapper, yin to Tip's yang), Ahi Shaheed Muhammad (the quiet DJ and sometimes peacemaker), and sometimes member Jarobi.  In the early 1990s, A Tribe Called Quest was a very big deal indeed.  They, along with other groups, were spearheading a new kind of hip-hop, one that still resonates today.  Of course, as with any group of musicians, things don't go as smoothly as one might think.  The main time-frame where director Michael Rapaport followed the band around was a particularly tumultuous one: they had reunited to headline the Rock the Bells tour in 2008, after a number of years had passed from their active days as a recording unit (their last album was released in 1998), but hadn't really addressed any of the issues that had come between them.

Every music documentary has to take the "Behind the Music" challenge: is there a reason for this to be a film instead of another episode of the long-running show?  In this case, I'd say yes.  First up, there's a lot of performance footage (although I don't remember any full performances, the movie wasn't unsatisfying in that way).  Secondly, it was necessary to establish the time and scene that ATCQ came out of.  They were big, and they were influential, but it's not as if they ever reached the level of Prince or Michael Jackson.  So some explanation is necessary.  Thirdly, how much (and how openly) does the movie address whatever caused their downfall?  Although all the members pretty much admit that they think the band ran it's course at the time, there was still some beef between Phife and Q-Tip.  It's tempting to delve into armchair psychology here, but one of the biggest issues was Phife's health (and not managing his diabetes as well as he could have).  It seems like Phife wishes that no one knew about it, but when an adult misses shows (at times, I don't think it was a big deal) and looks frail, questions are going to be asked.  Q-Tip seems not to be aware that Phife doesn't want people to know about it, and there is a ton of anger shown over the course of the interviews from Phife towards Q-Tip.  Tip, for the most part, seems content just to play music, whether or not it's with Tribe or own his own.  Like I said, armchair psychology is very tempting, but speaking as someone who's been sick, not having your health messes with everything in your life, including your relationships and your sense of self.

This movie fills an interesting niche - it's not like Tribe is unknown, this isn't the story of a band that's been overlooked unfairly.  Nor is it a glimpse at a band that dominated the world; I'm pretty sure that when Tribe's first album came out, Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer were killing it on the charts and in record stores.  It's just the story of a really good band, and if you're into them (or this brand of music), "Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest" is a must see.  This movie also accomplishes what every good music doc must: it put this band's catalog back into my listening rotation.  It's not like I didn't listen to them (I have all of their albums, and if you're going to watch this film, you probably should too, or get ready to abuse your credit card on iTunes) previously, but after a quick reminder of how great they are, I need to hear their material all over again.  Even though the film does address the beefs that each member has with one another, it never loses sight of how great the music is.  There's a great, brief scene near the end of the film where Busta Rhymes pops into their rehearsal space, and they all just stand there, listening to one of Tribe's songs, bobbing their heads together.  That's the whole thing in a nutshell, right there.

3.5 / 5 - TV (HD)

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa - 2013

"Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa" - 2013
Dir. by Jeff Tremaine - 1 hr. 32 min.

Red Band Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

"Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa" is the evolution of the Jackass brand of comedy.  Or, just as accurately, it's taken lessons from Sacha Baron Cohen in how to blend prank stunts into a more traditional narrative, so that it feels more like "a movie."  That's a positive thing, overall, particularly for Johnny Knoxville's health.  It shifts the onus of the comedy from constantly, dangerously raising the bar to building sympathy for a character, which for the most part doesn't include things like people getting shot or tasered.  Having said that, the stunts will still please "Jackass" fans.

The plot, which is pretty much an excuse for a road trip full of pranks, is that Irving Zisman's (Johnny Knoxville) wife has died, which doesn't upset him that much.  However, his daughter, Kimmie (Georgina Cates) is staring down a jail term, and needs Irving to transport his grandson, Billy (Jackson Nicoll) to his father, who lives in North Carolina.

The discussion of "Bad Grandpa" is probably going to center on what your favorite segment of the film was.  There's plenty to choose from; my favorite joke involved an airbag, my favorite extended sequence was the infiltration of a beauty pageant.  That was probably the only part that wasn't a joke for a joke's sake (although it was a great joke), instead making explicit the creepy subtext of child pageants.  A close second place takes place in a bar during Ladie's Night.  It's difficult to talk about much of the film, as it would constitute spoiling the jokes, which would dampen anyone's enjoyment.  In a general sense, it is often the case with prank movies, the best material isn't always the stunt itself, but capturing people's reactions to the proceedings.  There's plenty of legit double takes, mothers shielding their childrens' eyes, and deeply concerned passerbys.

The Bad Grandpa character isn't a new one if you've been watching "Jackass" over the years, so if you've seen any of it before, you'd know what to expect.  But the addition of Billy adds a different dynamic to the film.  And he gets a large share of the jokes, as well; this isn't a case of some kid being trotted out to further embarrass people with his mere presence.  Jackson Nicoll is more than game here, seeming like Dennis the Menace if people were encouraging him instead of trying to tamp down his mischief-causing instincts.  On the whole, "Bad Grandpa" is a funny movie.  There's nothing wrong with repeating what works, like with the previous Jackass movies, but transitioning one of the characters into a narrative (even if it's a very loose one) is enough of a refresh of the formula to make the jokes feel new again.  How much you'll enjoy this film probably depends on how much you like Jackass and Johnny Knoxville, and how much you enjoy R-rated comedies, but if you're yeah on any of those accounts, "Bad Grandpa" will hit the spot.

3 / 5 - Theatre