Comedy

Extra Ordinary

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Extra Ordinary
  • IMDb: link

Extra Ordinary movie reviewExtra Ordinary has the advantages and disadvantages one would expect from a writing and directing team working on their first feature. There’s certainly style and out-of-box thinking on display here, although the film is still quite rough around the edges.

We’re offered two stories that will eventual intertwine. The first, and more successful, involves lonely Irish driving instructor Rose Dooley (Maeve Higgins) whose paranormal powers she has been afraid to use since childhood. Meeting a likable-enough bloke (Barry Ward), who has troubles both with a home haunted by his deceased wife and a daughter (Claudia O’Doherty) under possession, forces Rose to dig back into her childhood skills (and pull out the old VCR tapes of her father’s paranormal infomercials).

The movie’s other story ties into possessed Claudia (O’Doherty) whose current plight was caused by one-hit wonder Christian Winter (Will Forte) hoping that sacrificing a virgin to Satan will provide him with inspiration for another hit. It’s in Forte’s segments that the film veers closest to going off-course, but Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman keep things on track.

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The Addams Family

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Addams Family (2019)
  • IMDb: link

The Addams Family Blu-ray reviewWhile the look of the animated remake of the 60s television show offers some intriguing designs, too much of the script flounders. After an introduction which offers up both the marriage of Gomez (Oscar Isaac) and Morticia (Charlize Theron) and the establishment of the family ni an abandomed insane asylum, The Addams Family jumps forward years to when a cookie-cutter suburban development moves in down the hill run by the maniacal Margaux Needler (Allison Janney).

Expected events unfold without much excitement or surprise as Needler riles up the community against its neighbors only to later be revealed to be the true monster. The tale offers some stand-out moments, almost all of which feature Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz) while her poor brother gets stuck in an extraneous subplot. The best of these could have all been done as shorts saving audiences from the drudgery of the rest of the film.

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It’s All Downhill From Here

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Downhill
  • IMDb: link

Downhill movie reviewIt’s surprising to me that a film co-written and co-directed by Jim Rash could turn out to be such a joyless exercise in futility. Along with Nat Faxon, Rash attempts to remake the Swedish dramedy Force Majeure for American audiences. Something obviously got lost in the translation.

Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus star as Pete and Billie, a married spending a ski vacation in the Alps with their two sons. The family witnesses a controlled avalanche that terrifies them, but actually never put the members of the family in any real danger. Pete running away to save himself creates tension among the group, especially when he fails to acknowledge or apologize for his actions.

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Dolemite is My Name

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Dolemite is My Name
  • IMDb: link

Dolemite is My Name movie reviewEddie Murphy stars as entertainer Rudy Ray Moore who reinvents his dated struggling stage show to find new success by assuming the role of a character named Dolemite on stage (inspired by stories told on the streets in the 1970s about a foul-mouthed pimp who wouldn’t take shit from anyone). The success of the character would lead to three racy comedy albums, which larger studios feared to touch due to their explicit nature, and even feature films.

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Klaus

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Klaus
  • IMDb: link

Klaus reviewKlaus offers a fun, if a bit predictable, holiday tale that explains various aspects of the Santa Claus mythology when a spoiled postman (Jason Schwartzman) is shipped off to the edge of the world and enlists the help of a hermit named Klaus (J.K. Simmons) to provide toys to the children of Smeerensburg where two rival families have been at odds for generations. While Jesper’s (Schwartzman) motives are originally selfish in terms of bumping up the post office’s numbers to earn a trip back home to the good life, his actions lead to a dramatic change in the town’s children, and eventually their parents.

The pair’s attempt to deliver presents sets the precedent of Santa coming through the chimney, lumps of coal, and a sleigh pulled by reindeer. Klaus works well as a holiday film where both our selfish protagonist and the bizarre city he finds himself exiled to discover the meaning of Christmas. Even the lonely Klaus is helped by Jesper’s schemes, although the story flounders a bit in the final act where Jesper’s motives behind the town’s changes are put into light prior to the inevitable conclusion to the story. Klaus is currently available on Netflix.

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