Movie Reviews

Overall Lords of Dogtown is a lightweight, but thoroughly entertaining biopic, and one sorely overdue. By taking the videogames, ESPN coverage, and mainstream influence out of skateboarding, it’ll be no wonder if this film manages to inspire a whole new generation of kids out to claim the city streets for their own.

Lords of Dogtown
3 & 1/2 Stars

If any sport just cried out for a decent cinematic treatment, skateboarding would have to be at the top of that list. By its very design it’s urban, counter-culture, and practiced by the kind of die-hard outsiders that Hollywood seems to love. So how is it that to date each attempt has been uniformly awful? Maybe it’s because every previous skateboarder film has been the product of a craze-cashing studio with no real understanding of the sport’s allure and culture. Thankfully, former pro-skater and filmmaker Stacey Peralta has stepped up with director Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) to deliver a love song to modern skate boarding’s origins with Lords of Dogtown.

Now that’s just cool

A semi-fictionalized retelling of the tale first show in Peralta’s documentary Dogtown & Z-Boys, The Lords of Dogtown focuses on the skating trifecta of the sports first icon Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk), selfless promoter Stacey Peralta (John Robinson), and unbending purist Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch) as they go from young surf punks to unlikely superstars amid the wreckage of Venice, California and their own lives. A nearly unrecognizable (and truly perfect) Heath Ledger plays Skip Engblom, the founder of the Zephyr Surf shop and the man who took a group of young kids heading nowhere and gave them the opportunity to make something of their lives and of their talent, only to be cast aside as their fame and fortune grew.

While the film conveys upon its characters a little more awareness of their immediate impact than they probably had, Lords of Dogtown has an excellent feel for its characters, and how their lives are changed by their talents and ambitions. The Z-Boys were kids who, above all else, just loved to skate and the three excellent leads never feel forced or contrived in their enthusiasm or relationships to each other. Hirsch is exceptionally good as Adams, the effortless master who can’t be bothered with the trappings and obligations of fame, and his life’s decline is a sharp contrast to how Alva and Peralta’s fortunes continued to rise.

The conflict and confusion these kids must have felt is a bit glossed over, indeed the whole film is a fairly breezy ride once the sponsors and accolades come to them, but the skateboarding is perfectly filmed with a mix of traditional and skate-video style camera work that perfectly captures the intensity and physicality of skateboarding. The Zephyr team was comprised of about 12 kids, so it’s a little disappointing that we’re not given any real opportunity to learn or care about the rest of the team, but thankfully Dogtown & Z-Boys fills in the rest of their sordid and storied history.

Overall Lords of Dogtown is a lightweight, but thoroughly entertaining biopic, and one sorely overdue. By taking the videogames, ESPN coverage, and mainstream influence out of skateboarding, it’ll be no wonder if this film manages to inspire a whole new generation of kids out to claim the city streets for their own.

This is a no-brain summer comedy that has a built in audience of frats boys, frat boys to be, and former glory frat men. While certainly not a laugh riot, The Longest Yard is actually awful per se, and filmgoers who want a break from the special effects orgies but don’t want kids fare or teen drama will most likely flock to it in droves.

The Longest Yard
2 Stars

At the recent New York premier of The Longest Yard, Burt Reynolds slapped a reporter for not ever having seen the 1974 version of the seminal football film. (You can read my review of the recent DVD release HERE) While Reynolds’ publicist has tried to laugh off the incident by saying it was a playful jest, I’m left to wonder if star Adam Sandler and director Pete Segal got similar treatment on the set, because obviously they haven’t seen it either.

See that expression. Get used to it

This time around Sandler takes the role of Paul “Wrecking” Crewe a former NFL quarterback who was booted from the league for points shaving. Sick of his life as a kept boy-toy for a harridan-like Courtney Cox, Crewe goes on a wild, drunken joyride through the city and ending up in hoosegow. Unbeknownst to him, the warden (James Cromwell) has had Crewe sent to his facility in the hopes that Crewe will help his guards’ struggling semi-pro team. Soon enough Crewe and ace hustler The Caretaker (Chris Rock) are putting together an inmate team to give the guards an easy win and the inmates some much desired payback. Along the way friendships are forged The Man gets it stuck to, and no real lessons are learned.

I try to avoid comparing remakes to their source material, but in this case what’s missing from The Longest Yard makes it impossible to avoid. Sandler’s Crewe isn’t the selfish and amoral cad that Reynolds portrayed in the original, nor does Sandler experience any form of character arc or change of heart. He’s playing it straight here, which means a nearly comatose delivery almost devoid of likability. To make matters worse, Sandler has to share the screen with Reynolds, who in even his diminished role still bears the charm and aura that made him such a ubiquitous screen presence in the 70’s. Where Sandler can do barely-contained rage, Reynolds is the epitome of macho cool, an ingredient sorely lacking from this film.

Chris Rock continues his unwavering tradition of bug-eyed delivery of invariably racial jokes, but sadly he’s the comedic highlight of the film. The cast of criminal losers they assemble to form the inmate team feel like the kind of caricatures more suited to a Rob Schneider vehicle, all man-childs and morons. There’s no hint of the brutal sociopaths that filled the original, and their desire to inflict brutal revenge on the guards that torment them is mostly talked about but rarely felt.

But this is a football movie, so no matter the plot or characters a film like has to live or die on the quality of the sports action, and yet again this remake falls far short of the superb gamesmanship of the original. Either due to direction, cinematography, or editing the football game that comprises the third act of the film is just a jumbled mass of quick cuts and hit shots with jokes thrown in willy-nilly. The original, while no masterpiece, earned its place in the canon of great sports films on the weight of the game itself as much as it’s anti-establishment underdog story. Sandler’s version plays like it was designed by someone who knew of football, but not what makes it such a compelling sport to watch.

This is a no-brain summer comedy that has a built in audience of frats boys, frat boys to be, and former glory frat men. While certainly not a laugh riot, The Longest Yard is actually awful per se, and filmgoers who want a break from the special effects orgies but don’t want kids fare or teen drama will most likely flock to it in droves.

Kicking & Screaming won’t take any space on the ‘great sports films’ rack, but it should provide families with some easy laughs and some rainy day diversions.  And if nothing else, it’ll provide moviegoers with the all important tetherball fix we’ve so desperately been lacking.

Kicking & Sreaming
2 & 1/2 Stars

Will Ferrell doesn’t exactly break cinematic ground with Kicking & Screaming, but as yet another entry in the ‘kid sports’ genre, it’s certainly a little unique.  Not nearly as blue-collar and sarcastic as The Bad News Bears (which gets its own update this summer from Richard Linklater and Billy Bob Thorton), K&S provides a lot of unexpected laughs.

Scream, Dracula, scream!

Ferrell plays a meek and embittered vitamin supplement store owner who just can’t measure up to his hyper-competitive dad (Robert Duvall), who just happens to coach the little league soccer team his son plays on.  After Duvall trades Ferrell’s son to another team, Phil decides to coach the perennial losers in an effort to one-up his old man.  Phil brings in the help of Mike Ditka, who has been warring with his dad for years, to get his coaching skills up to par.  By definition and federal mandate, hilarity then ensues.

Put rather simply, Kicking & Screaming is The Mighty Ducks Play Soccer; same idea, same ‘coach becomes win-obsessed jerk’, and same hokey finale.  Except that in this version, the kids are really nothing more than afterthoughts to the comedic force of Will Ferrell, who almost assuredly ad-libbed a good portion of his performance.  You’ll walk out of this movie remembering only Will Ferrell and Mike Ditka (who just steals every scene he’s in). 

There are some inspired moments with Ditka and Duvall, who bring a gleeful malice to their interactions as bickering neighbors, especially to their confrontation over who’s the better coach, but in the end this is Will’s show.  No one does over-the-top reactions like Ferrell, and his moments of lunacy are enough to make you forget just how flimsy the rest of the film is.  It’ll be interesting to see how this effects his steamroller momentum in Hollywood, but I can’t imagine it’ll put too much of a dent in it.  Judging from the audience of soccer kids at the screening, it’ll be a hit with the younger crowd.  After all, there’s nothing kids like more than seeing adults make fools of themselves, and Ferrell is blissfully unafraid to be a complete buffoon.

Kicking & Screaming won’t take any space on the ‘great sports films’ rack, but it should provide families with some easy laughs and some rainy day diversions.  And if nothing else, it’ll provide moviegoers with the all important tetherball fix we’ve so desperately been lacking.