Review “Horrible Bosses 2”

It took five people to attempt to rekindle the chemistry of Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis have with “Horrible Bosses 2” a comedy that doesn’t go “The Hangover Part 2” route in rehashing the script of the first movie, cutting and pasting the same scenes except that it is “In Thailand”.

Nick (Bateman) Kurt (Sudeikis) and Dale (Day) are now entrepreneurs and have developed “The Shower Buddy” and in quick exposition Dale has triplets, Nick is the sane one of the bunch and Kurt is still Kurt. You would watch this movie basically for the banter between the three. As for the “plot” itself? Well it isn’t cutting and pasting “murder” for “kidnapping” it is very close to that. The cast of the whole movie are not phoning their performances in. After a semi-disastrous demonstration of their product on an LA morning talk shows, flames erupt when Bateman says the name of the company’s website, “Nick Kurt Dale.com” and Keegan-Michael Key suggests politely they should reconsider changing the name of the website.

That doesn’t stop Rex Hanson (Chris Pine) from inviting the boys into a meeting to pitch their product, turns out Rex is messing with the guys and the real villain Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz) steps in and finances, the manufacturing of the shower buddy.

Shortly after the first product rolls off the production line, they find out that they will be losing their business, because the loan that Bert gave them is going to default, in order to repay the debt Kurt will bid pennies on the dollar for the 100 thousand shower buddies, that he ordered.

This doesn’t sit well with Nick, Kurt and Dale, and in desperation hatch a scheme to kidnap Rex for the exact same dollar amount of the loan, that they are set to default on. By this time two of the three bosses show up and drop out. Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) gets the best lines and proceeds to emasculate the boys, ok I know that didn’t sound right, trust me Spacey gets the best lines, meanwhile there is an attempted robbery of a tank of laughing gas from the dental office of Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston)at night, things get complicated when Dr. Harris support group meet up at the office and Kurt and Dale are in a storage closet and Nick tries to bail everyone out.

There is nothing in the way of character development for anyone, Nick as I said earlier is still the sane one of the group, Kurt is the crazy one, with a one track mind and Dale is still frantic, channeling Charlie from “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” Aniston’s Dr. Harris still has her same addictions from the first movie, Spacey is still mean, I would to if I were in prison and “Mother F**ker” Jones (Jamie Foxx) is still, well a………..actually he is wanting to open a Pinkberry, but needs start up capital.

There is a twist of sorts, with Rex hatching a kidnapping scheme luring the three into the scheme kicking and screaming. A welcomed addition to the cast is Detective Hatcher (Jonathan Banks) who brings the growl of Mike Ehrmantraut from “Breaking Bad” with a mild lighter touch.

If you’ve seen the trailer, sadly you’ve seen a majority of the best parts of the movie, as far as sequels go, you could do a lot worse than “Horrible Bosses 2”, you could check out “Smokey and the Bandit 2” or “Another 48 Hours”. Like I said it took five people to cook up this sequel, I would like to see in the future perhaps, Day, Bateman and Sudeikis take on another comedy and go in different directions, for example Bateman directed and starred in “Bad Words” and Sudeikis had “We’re the Millers” last year, which also is headed for a sequel, I have no idea how they will pull that off. There are a few laughs here the movie isn’t terrible, by any stretch, just go in with very low expectations.

Review “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit”

 So who should take on the late Tom Clancy’s “Jack Ryan”? In the first go around that fell to Alec Baldwin with John McTiernan at the helm for “The Hunt for Red October” from Alec Baldwin, Jack Ryan was taken over by Harrison Ford for director Phillip Noyce for “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger”. In 2002 Ben Affleck took the reigns of the Ryan role for “The Sum of All Fears” with Phil Alden Robinson in the director’s chair and Morgan Freeman in a mentor role, that was originated with the voice of Lord Vader himself James Earl Jones.

12 years later (originally slated for a Christmas Day 2013 release) pushed back to an early January release Jack Ryan is now being played by Chris Pine with Kenneth Branagh pulling double duty with directing duties the film’s villain/bad guy Viktor Cherevin, with “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit”.How much of a bad ass is Cherevin? We meet him with a male nurse trying to give him an insulin shot, when the nurse can’t find a vein, Cherevin proceeds to pistol whip him, before we get to that point, the movie starts out with Ryan resting on a campus bench in London, where upon he learns about the events of 9/11, from there Ryan enlists in the USMC on a mission to Afghanistan, the helicopter Ryan was in is shot down, which is referenced in “The Hunt for Red October” and if you’ve read the books, you know that happens. While rehabbing at Walter Reed Medical Center Ryan meets Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley) a medical student on the verge of becoming a doctor. Also at the hospital is Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) a recruiter for the CIA, Harper enlists Ryan to be a financial analyst, the only hitch in the giddy up is that Ryan can’t tell anyone he is in the CIA.

Instead of tracking down a run-away nuclear submarine, or figuring out what happened to the President’s friends, Ryan’s first mission, even though he is just an analyst is pressed into action, when Ryan notices an abnormality in Cheverin’s accounts, by Ryan’s research the Russians are looking to implode the US dollar which would lead to the second US depression.

The bulk of the film happens in Moscow, where Ryan attempts an audit on Cherevin, who in turn provides Ryan with a diversion and a dinner invite with his now fiancée Cathy who also finds out about Jack being a CIA analyst. An elaborate cat and mouse game between Ryan and Cherevin involving a dinner date gone terribly wrong, lifting a wallet and i.d. card and some hostage torture.

Knightley and Pine play well off one another, Costner isn’t given a whole lot to do, Branagh handles the action sequences a lot better than all of the Dutch angles he deployed in “Thor” his filmography has been very diverse starting out in 1989 with a very ambitious undertaking of “Henry V” taking care of screen play duties and directing duties, followed up with a noir thriller in the Scott Frank penned “Dead Again” and tackling Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” with Robert DeNiro.

Overall the only thing wrong with “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” is the title, if you were to rank the movies in the series, I would put this right behind “Clear and Present Danger” as for Pine as Ryan he would be right behind Harrison Ford, who knows if Paramount is going to do another movie with Pine, that is he can squeeze in another go around between “Star Trek” films.

Review People Like Us: Not Really Like Us Maybe In A Fantasy Land

Say your Alex Kurtzman, you and your writing partner Roberto Orci have a fairly decent track record writing wise, being responsible for the “Star Trek” along with it’s sequel, the other end you are also on the hook for “Transformer’s Revenge of the Fallen” which I would attribute to burn out, and  the writer’s strike had a few things to do with the end result.

They have that are their resume, where I don’t, I am still struggling to write that first screenplay. As the saying goes “All I want to do is direct” for everything that you’ve done you go outside (kind of) of your comfort zone and construct a drama filled to the brim with tropes you get “People Like Us“.

There are a few things about this movie, first one is Chris Pine, who honestly does very good work, despite some crap screenplays (“This Means War” “Smokin’ Aces” ) he has that certain how do you say gene se qua. For this role Pine is a young Buck salesman, what does he sell? Everything that hasn’t been sold batering actually, he runs into trouble when a train full of soup spoils which puts him under investigation with the Federal Trade Commision. His boss Richards (Jon Favreau) tells Sam to bribe the official, thing is Sam is broke because Richards took his commission from one of his deals.

Outside of that things are good for Sam, he has a live in girlfriend in the form of Olivia Wilde ok in this her name is Hannah, who really doesn’t know all that much about Sam, except that he is driven to make a life for himself. Sam’s parents, well Sam doesn’t really talk about his parents for plot purposes.

After learning of his Father’s death Sam has to go back home to Laurel Canyon,  Sam wants to miss the funeral miss it all together, Hannah has other plans for that. Sam’s Father  Jerry was a prolific music producer in the 70’s the home remains intact stocked to the roof with a classic vinyl collection that would rival Cameron Crowe’s.

Sam’s Mom is Michelle Pfeiffer, who loved Sam’s father despite some indiscretions. One of those indiscretions, comes in the form of a shaving kit filled with one hundred thousand dollars cash, given to him by Phillip Baker Hall. The cash is not for Sam, it is for Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) who turns out to be Sam’s half sister.

Frankie, is a recovering, well whatever ironically she’s a bartender because that’s what you do in a movie like this. The anchor of this film is Frankie’s kid Josh (Michael Hall D’Addario) and by anchor his nearly sinks the whole film. This kid knows everything is smarter than his mother, and honestly he is just annoying. Not the actor mind you, the character who is three steps ahead of everybody. Growing up Frankie, never knew her father, you will find out why later. It is up to Sam to give Frankie, the shaving kit full of cash, they meet cute at an A.A. meeting, things descends towards the second and third act  from there.

Good things about this flick? There are no giant transforming robots, the cast is very photogenic, no huge explosions, some decent music which I’m sure a chunk of the budget went to. If you forget that Josh is in the movie, since he is so freaking smart you think he would develop a way to go back in time and get himself out of this movie. “People Like Us” gives you the best and worst of Kurtzman & Orci, now their worst as I said earlier is “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and they hook a U-turn just before it sinks to those depths.  So if your looking to just semi veg out see a very likeable cast interact with one another you can do a lot worse than this flick.

Review: Star Trek Into Darkness Or Khan 2.0

Easily Summer’s most anticipated movie director JJ Abrams  writers Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, not only have to drum up a new adventure for Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and the Enterprise crew, also follow up a highly inventive reboot of the Star Trek canon in 2009.

Unlike “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and its perceived failure, the sequel “Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan” saved the franchise in 1982, with the plot twist that Mr. Spock dies in the sequel that when it came out this was before “Spoiler Alert” and the internet this twist was said freely without retribution, if  “Wrath of Khan” came out today, well something that huge, disclosed in public would incur the anger of many. Fans still consider “Star Trek 2” still the gold standard of the entire series.

My only fear is that Kurtzman & Orci bang out something lazy, insulting and sophomoric like “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” They have had four years to tweak the property just right I have not delved into any plot details rumors abound as to who the villain is in this go around.

There is a new cast/crew member in Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League) as Dr. Carol Marcus, who originally in “Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan” was the mother of Kirk’s child David, that is a different time different place whether that happens yet is unknown, or if it even happens.

This will possibly be Abrams last foray for awhile into the Star Trek Universe, in Summer 2015 in conjunction with the mouse house, he is tackling another iconic property in something called “Star Wars”(?) I’m not sure, I have that right. He will be attempting to undo the damage Lucas inflicted on himself with the prequels.

As an homage of sorts to Lucas “Star Trek Into Darkness” begins with Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban) running from an indigenous race of aliens, like Indiana Jones running away from the Hovitos in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” the Enterprise crew is on this planet to prevent it’s extinction from a volitale volcano. The Enterprise is not in plain sight it is actually hiding underwater so that the prime directive would not be violated. Mr. Spock(Zachary Quinto) is dropped into the volcano with a device that would prevent the mass destruction of the planet.

Directive be dammed Kirk rescues Spock, that gets him into trouble with Starfleet and Captain Pike,  Spock is given command of the U.S.S. Bradbury and Kirk is demoted to 1st officer of the Enterprise, with Pike taking over.

In London A Starfleet building is destroyed, with only a clue as to who is behind this act, which happens to be “John Harrison” (Benedict Cumberbatch)

During a meeting Kirk figures out that the next target of Harrison is the Starfleet meeting where Harrison escapes and many casualties, where Kirk is given back the command of the Enterprise.

With orders to bring Harrison back from Starfleet Admiral Alexander Marcus (Peter Weller)

To locate and execute John Harrison, with a newly redesigned photon torpedoes. Harrison is hiding on Kronos, the Klingon homeworld, where if the Enterprise is found to be there could start a war with the Klingons, Harrison is on an uninhibited part of the planet. Getting the crew ready Scotty (Simon Pegg) resigns from his position as engineer, when the fuel source of the torpedoes would not be disclosed to him, Kirk gives the engineering duties to Chekov (Anton Yelchin) from there the chase is on, there are plot twists, that I will not go into except to say that Kurtzman, Orci & Lindelof basically do their take on “Wrath of Khan” if this movie was a rock album, “Star Trek Into Darkness” is a “B” side, or an acoustic take on the Khan storyline.

The distracting thing about “Star Trek Into Darkness” is the costume design outside of the uniforms worn in the Apple Store/Enterprise. Honestly it’s like they took all the outfits worn in all of the movies, with the exception of “The Next Generation” series, and decided to dress them in these outfits for different reasons.

Overall “Star Trek Into Darkness” is not as fun as the first movie, the quality is still there, despite the movie being ‘dark’ there is still ‘Lens Flare’, and it is unfair to compare the movies, it is two different movies. There is a drawback to waiting four years to get the sequel out, however the time was needed to make the material right. I’m sure there were hard core Trek fans will be angry with what happens in this movie.

So if you are going to expect the same thing that does not happen here, if you were to compare “Star Trek Into Darkness” to another film I’d say it is comparable to “The Empire Strikes Back” so live long and prosper while the force is with you.

Rating 3*** out of / 4 ****