The Dictator

Sacha Baron Cohen's world absurdity tour continues, but with diminishing returns. It is instructive to do a compare and contrast with the auteurs most successful work, Borat. The earlier movie, made in faux documentary style, landed one uproarious laugh after another, while this effort, a more standard fictional comedic setup with Cohen playing African-Arab autocrat Aladeen, has its fine moments, but they come scattershot, mostly as jokes and one-liners that work in isolation. Clearly, the demands of a fictional narrative muted the impact of Cohen’s outrageous style of comedy. What you’re left with, then, is a film that represents probably the lower endpoint of this comedian's arc. It is no wonder that Cohen eventually moved away from this sort of movie and took on a number of smaller, often more serious roles in later years. As for this work, again, it has its moments, but given the expectations raised by the earlier efforts, it is difficult to view this entry as anything but a disappointment—and that verdict is rendered despite the presence of the normally reliable Anna Faris as Aladeen's foil/love interest. (The final joke, by the way, is fully telegraphed and comes as no surprise to anyone in the audience who has been paying the slightest attention.) Thankfully, those of us who do not live in Wadiya have the freedom to choose whether or not to watch this work. If you’re feeling as self-indulgent as your typical Middle Eastern dictator, perhaps you will wish to spend your time on this endeavor. Otherwise, you may seek the refuge of giving this one a pass.

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Expansion is sometimes a good thing, sometimes not. This movie here is a case in point. Overall, the story is a bit too ambitious; when the characters achieve their originally stated goal, it seems like a good place to wrap up the proceedings and call it game over. But then things move in an altogether new direction, and not always successfully. The additional plot and resolution does not really add anything onto the story that needed to be there, beyond making an animated movie feel more cinematic by virtue of its being what is generally regarded as feature length. But that’s not to say that all of the story’s twists and turns are unwelcome. There’s good stuff in this flick, especially when the thing turns kind of twisted and starts sending up its own studio’s sacred cows, which leads to many of the movie’s laugh-out-loud moments. On the downside, one thing that looms over the entire tale is its vision of the internet, which includes a slew of major names (almost certainly paid product placements) and is hard to view without considering, from today’s standpoint, how much of all that has proven to be problematic, if not outright malevolent. That drops a bit of a buzzkill onto the presentation. Still, there’s enough satisfying entertainment here to get this flick just over the threshold for a PURR rather than a MEOW. One might accept another sequel with this cast, if someone comes up with a truly fresh idea—there were certainly possible story developments left on the table in this outing—and if the filmmakers can get everyone (including the studio) on board for the ride. If not, this would probably be a fine time for this crew to check themselves before they wreck themselves.

Kong: Skull Island

Monkeys see, monkeys redo. In this case, a certain crew of filmmaking monkeys did a particularly well-done reimagination of the classic monster movie featuring the titular, towering primate. This flick is a sort of sequel/companion piece to the recent, under-appreciated Godzilla movie--the Monarch cinematic universe?--with some similar themes and stylistic touches, though this flick has perhaps even more visual flair, and maybe a better sense of humor. Ultimately, though, this is truly a descendant of the original, featuring more than a couple of set pieces that seem to very consciously echo that eighty-year-old classic--hence, the heart of the matter is what it always is with a good monster movie: an orgy of satisfying violence. Who can ask for more than that? (And let's face it: the Bad Cat is a bit of a monster himself, so no wonder he's purring.)

Wreck-it Ralph

Unlike many contemporary animation films, this movie breaks the template in important ways; for instance, there’s a decided lack of ginned up, vaguely false sentiment here. Where the emotional beats come, they are well earned. Also, the film’s intelligence really shines through in the execution; the filmmakers create a world with its own rules, and they adhere to those rules all the way through. It’s just a very smart film. And, to top it off, watching this flick is an extra hoot for anyone old enough to remember the originals of many of these games. Strong stuff indeed. Drop your coins in the slot and play this one all you like.

Cedar Rapids

Who knew the Upper Plains could be so funny? Ed Helms, apparently, who gives a note perfect performance as a naif who finds more than he bargained for--to his ultimate gain--at an insurance industry convention in the titular town. The story stays odd and appealingly skewed throughout, and--unlike many a self-aware 'zany' comedy--never veers off into the completely improbable. (There's one plot glitch--involving the Helms character's major sin--that's not really true to form, but it's a very minor, almost unnoticeable thing.) The result is often laugh out loud funny and a good time at the movies. Check it out.

Gangs Of New York

Best Picture? No. But it certainly isn't bad. The production is lavish and first rate. And Daniel Day-Lewis is simply extraordinary as Bill the Butcher; the movie is worth watching just for his performance alone.

The Hours

I'm not impressed; guess I get to go sit in the corner for a while. Everyone else loved this one, so maybe I'm the problem. To me, the story seemed both contrived and overly convoluted; better to tell one story clearly and lucidly than to lose yourself in three intertwined tales. The weakness is almost overcome by good performances from a great cast, but it's not enough for me.

Chicago

Best Picture, eh? If you say so. For me, it's an entertaining though by no means great movie. Nice work by the cast--all doing their own singing and dancing, apparently--and the story has its clever moments. But the film also illustrates why the classic movie musical is a mostly dead form: it's hard to get beyond the clear artificiality of the (in this case, literally) staged musical numbers. Such a presentation requires a level of audience acceptance that just doesn't exist these days. Don't place any sucker bets on the "revival" of the movie musical just yet.

The Thin Red Line

Wow--they made Guadalcanal boring. Almost a twin to Saving Private Ryan--another ponderous, pretentious WWII epic that had virtually no real story to speak of. Oh well--at least it looked nice.