Crazy People

Year 2, Day 246 - 9/3/10 - Movie #612

BEFORE: This will finish off my chain about, well, crazy people. But it's also the start of a new chain, about corporate America, office politics and the working class. Appropriate for the start of Labor Day weekend, no?

THE PLOT: A bitter ad executive who has reached his breaking point finds himself in a mental institution where his career begins to revive with the help of the hospital's patients.

AFTER: We're back in the institution tonight - ah, so comforting. Three squares and a cot, and all we've got to do is finish this layout's copy before tomorrow's meeting - huh?

Dudley Moore plays Emory Leeson, an adman who snaps - but it's not the kind of snap where he ends up on top of a water-tower with a sniper rifle. (Thank god) He just gets tired of lying to the American people, which is what advertising is, at least according to this movie. He decides to write some honest advertising copy - like "Metamucil. It helps you go to the toilet." This honest approach earns him a trip to the looney bin on the company's dime.

But, accidentally some of his honest ads run in newspapers, and the American people go bonkers for the approach. Here's where the movie lost me a little bit, because the idea was to speak to Americans openly and intelligently, and the ads are depicted as working not because Americans are smart, but because Americans are dumb and impressionable. I suppose it would be too hard to depict Americans acting responsibly? (Come to think of it, I'm not sure I even know what that would look like...)

I also have a problem with the suggestion that all advertising is inherently dishonest. Some of it, sure, but all of it? We do have regulations in this country about false advertising, and we do have class-action suits all the time against medicines that make false claims, or ads that depict a product doing something it doesn't. And every advertising agency has a legal department that reads and approves all of its copy - so you actually can't even say some of the so-called "honest" ads shown in this movie. Saying that buying a Porsche will get you laid should, and would, result in your agency losing the account.

Full disclosure: One of my two jobs is for an animation agent, and my boss works closely with the ad agencies to produce animated commercials - so I do have some working knowledge of the ad game (though I've never watched "Mad Men"), and I know it's not easy coming up with original taglines or ideas. But relying on mental patients to write ads? Seems to me you'd just end up with a bunch of unintelligible storyboards.

What did ring true was the company meeting without the mental patients, where the ad writers realized that no one in the room actually had the capacity to be honest, in a way that would sell a product. Something similar happened a few years ago, when the big agencies realized that today's teens had seen so many phony ads while growing up, that they were essentially immune to corporate B.S. I'm sure there were many meetings where people had to shrug and admit they had no idea how to sell to today's youth market. I think some of them ended up hiring teens to sell to other teens, plus this led to today's free-for-all, where companies seem to be texting, tweeting and facebooking in desperation, just to seem hip and catch the attention of a a few tweens. Why the heck does Miracle Whip need Facebook friends? But that's where we seem to be these days.

I would imagine the agency would form a focus group of honest people - boy scouts, grandmothers - before they'd crawl back and give the mental patients contracts and office equipment and secretaries. Hey, is that guy from "Liar Liar" available?

Still, there are some charming bits here - Emory learns to trust his ad instincts again, and finds love and friendship, and the mental patients are given a purpose. But there's no real resolution here, it feels like another case of someone proposing a movie plot without really coming up with a way to end it.

Also starring Daryl Hannah (last seen in "The Pope of Greenwich Village"), Mercedes Ruehl (last seen in "The Secret of My Success"), Paul Reiser, David Paymer (last seen in "Get Shorty"), and J.T. Walsh (last seen in "The Negotiator") And jeez, was that "Uncle" Floyd Vivino as a mental patient? Good casting there.

RATING: 5 out of 10 "Hello"s

Yes Man

Year 2, Day 245 - 9/2/10 - Movie #611

BEFORE: This is something of a variation on last night's film, I think - instead of a lying lawyer who is forced to tell the truth, we've got a negative banker, who chooses to say "Yes" to everything.

THE PLOT: After attending a self-help seminar, a man challenges himself to say "yes" to everything for an entire year.

AFTER: Jim Carrey plays Carl, a man who spends his days turning down loans, and his evenings turning down his friends' offers to have fun, choosing instead to stay home and watch movies (and what exactly is wrong with that, I'd like to know...way to alienate your audience!) After another friend convinces him to attend a "Yes"-themed seminar, he decides to turn his life around by agreeing to every opportunity that comes his way.

I understand the concept - two years ago, my boss gave me one of those books about "Things to Do When You Turn 40". I looked through it and decided that I had no use for the suggestions, since I'm not big on swimming with sharks, or skydiving - I'm getting kind of used to being alive, and I'd like to keep it going if I can. But at least it got me thinking about how I wanted to spend my time, and that led to the decision to watch a movie daily.

The problem here is, agreeing to always agree assumes that every situation proposed will be a positive one. And in this movie, even the negative situations turn out to have silver linings. Sure, it's easy to say yes to "Would you like to buy some girl scout cookies?" (HELLZ, yeah!) or when a cute girl says, "Would you like a ride on my scooter?" But what if someone said, "Would you do me a favor and shoot that policeman for me?"

The comic situations here give Carrey a lot of opportunities to act ridiculous and make silly faces, but this is easily the least annoying that Carrey has been all week. I think he finally figured out that instead of playing extreme morons and larger-than-life characters, his schtick has more appeal when he's playing an average guy.

The movie really picks up when Carl and his new girlfriend go on spontaneous trips to random places, like Lincoln, Nebraska. My wife and I have taken to going on random road trips, to previously driven-by towns like Mystic CT, Riverhead L.I., and Rehoboth Beach DE - and I've had splendid times in those places. Next month we head up to Saratoga and Lake George NY, and I don't know a lot about what's up there, but I think we'll make the best of it - if you're with the one you love, I guess it doesn't really matter where you go. Give us a Denny's and an outlet mall, and we'll have fun.

This one kind of won me over, I thought it would be mostly silly, but it had some heart and an interesting message.

Also starring Zooey Deschanel (last seen in "The Happening"), Bradley Cooper (last seen in "The Rocker"), Danny Masterson, Terence Stamp (last seen in "The Real McCoy"), John Michael Higgins (last seen in "Walk Hard"), with cameos from Brent Briscoe (last seen in "The Majestic"), Fionnula Flanagan, and Luis Guzman (last seen in "Q & A").

RATING: 8 out of 10 guitar lessons

Liar Liar

Year 2, Day 244 - 9/1/10 - Movie #610

BEFORE: Tonight Jim Carrey has some form of mental illness where he can't lie. Well, maybe this doesn't count as a mental defect, but work with me here, OK?

THE PLOT: A fast track lawyer can't lie for 24 hours due to his son's birthday wish.

AFTER: Yeah, I'm going to allow this one here, because Carrey essentially acts like a mental patient in the courtroom. This was made back at the time where Carrey making some silly faces and falling down a lot would sell a film - so we see him getting more and more frustrated as his inability to lie affects his office relationships, and his ability to defend his client.

He even resorts to beating himself up to try and get a one-day recess in court - which he also did in "Me, Myself & Irene", but for different reasons - but nothing works, and he ends up sabotaging his own case. Objecting to his own motions - it's an absolutely insane legal strategy. Only in a movie can this happen, and only in a movie could he (eventually) find a way to turn it around to his advantage.

It's a simple premise, and I think it could have been more fully explored - once again, someone aimed for the lowest common denominator, so we get Carrey's character, Fletcher Reede, commenting on women's breasts and admitting to farting in an elevator. Which is interesting symbolism, since Carrey's overacting is about as subtle as a fart in an elevator.

The idea is that Fletcher is a "bad dad" - apparently because he couldn't stay faithful to his wife, he's chosen work over his kid, and on top of that, he lies to his kid when he's late, and about how much time they're going to spend together. His ex-wife's boyfriend talks down to the kid, which is almost worse, and is not much better than lying. You see a lot of adults who don't know how to talk to kids - I've always found it better and easier to just treat them like tiny adults, but what do I know? I don't have kids, so I don't know how to deal with them long-term either.

I could go in a couple different directions here - I just got more courtroom dramas like "A Time to Kill" and "The Chamber", or I could even do a whole chain on lies and deception, since I just got copies of "The Invention of Lying", "The Great Buck Howard", and "Color Me Kubrick". But I think I'll close out Jim Carrey films tomorrow, then finish up films about crazy people, then transition into my chain for Labor Day.

Yes, I've blocked out a rough plan for films through the end of December - though there is some flexibility, I like to have an advance road map in place. The general plan for September will be films about corporate America and labor workers, which will lead into Jack Nicholson movies, which will lead into October's horror chain (werewolves, vampires, demon children, Stephen King) which will lead into films about writers, then spies, then war/soldiers, a couple of leftover football films, then Christmas films, and finally a look at modern religion. Then I'll regroup for 2011.

Also starring Maura Tierney (last seen in "Semi-Pro"), Cary Elwes (last seen in "Twister"), Jennifer Tilly, Amanda Donohoe, Swoosie Kurtz (last heard in "Superman/Doomsday"), with character actor Jason Bernard, and cameos from Mitch Ryan (last seen in "Magnum Force"), Randall "Tex" Cobb, Cheri Oteri and O.J. Simpson trial prosecuting attorney Christopher Darden.

RATING: 4 out of 10 baseball gloves

The Number 23

Year 2, Day 243 - 8/31/10 - Movie #609

BEFORE: Tonight's focus is on paranoid delusion...I think. (or...is it?)

THE PLOT: Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him. As his obsession increases, more and more similarities seem to arise.

AFTER: I'm going to tread lightly here, because I HATE when people give away movie endings in their reviews. If you've noticed, I try very hard to talk about movies without giving up all the twists and turns.

My grandmother used to say that "people die in threes", and she refused to listen to me when I pointed out that she was just starting her count over at "1" when the fourth person she knew passed away. I see it all the time in forums online - people asking, "How come every time I look at the clock, it's 11:11?" (or 2:22, or 1:23, etc.) That's because you did it once, and you noticed it, and then after that, you disregarded every time you looked at the clock when it WASN'T 11:11. Then pretty soon your brain gets used to looking at the clock at that time, and it starts to happen in a pattern. It's a variation of "That white van is ALWAYS on the corner." You might see the van a few times, then you always notice when it's there, and you disregard the times you look at the corner and it's not. Or, maybe some guy just likes parking his van on the corner spot. (It is easier to pull out from the curb, I'm just sayin'.)

Of course, when you read a book, you tend to imagine yourself as the title character. And of course, you look for things in a book, or a movie, that tie in with your life, what you're going through, or what's happened to you in the past. But Walter Sparrow finds that the similarities between himself and the character in the book he's reading (also titled "The Number 23") are just too amazing to write off. The characters in the book become obsessed with numerology, and then so does he. But what does it all mean? Ah, ah, that would be telling.

I did enjoy this one, but I found that it strained the credulity of what a person is capable of doing, and what a person is capable of forgetting having done. (is that the right tense?) There are similarities here to other thrillers, such as "Memento" (why do crazy people always write things on their bodies? Don't they give them paper and crayons and stuff?) and we do see some events out of proper narrative order, but it's another of the rare cases where that works.

And it's another Hollywood staple to have an actor play both the reader and the star of the novel he's reading at the same time - doesn't everyone picture themselves as a hip, cool private detective, surrounded by hot women mixed up in some vast conspiracy? Sure, it's corny, but it's used for a greater purpose here.

This one might keep you guessing...(or will it?)

Also starring Virginia Madsen (last seen in "Firewall"), Danny Huston (last seen in "21 Grams"), Lynn Collins (last seen in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine") and Rhona Mitra. Oh, and Mark Pellegrino (Jacob from "Lost").

RATING: 7 out of 10 birthday cakes

The Majestic

Year 2, Day 242 - 8/30/10 - Movie #608

BEFORE: Tonight the Jim Carrey Wheel of Mental Illness lands on...amnesia!

THE PLOT: A blacklisted Hollywood writer gets into a car accident, loses his memory and settles down in a small town where he is mistaken for a long-lost son.

AFTER: There's a lot going on here - from the aforementioned amnesia, to a look at 1950's small-town America, and a commentary on the Red Scare and McCarthy hearings. I expected a lot of phony, overblown nostalgia, but instead I found there was a good deal of heart lurking beneath it all. Like the candy counter under a sheet and a layer of dust...

Jim Carrey's amnesiac screenwriter, Peter Appleton, turns up in an idyllic California town, and apparently bears more than a passing resemblance to a soldier who was lost in action during World War II. He sort of "fills in the blanks" enough to believe himself to actually be the long-lost Luke Trimble, and "reunites" with Luke's father. Together they re-build the town theater, the Majestic of the title, and bring hope back to a community, in the form of Hollywood magic.

I've worked in movie theaters, twice in my life - and let me tell you, nothing can make you hate movies more than working in a theater...tearing tickets and cleaning up candy wrappers turned out to not be as glamorous as I was led to believe. Still, all the popcorn I could eat, and lemonade concentrate shooters when I got tired...oh, yeah, and free movies - but who wants to spend their day off going back to their job, just to watch a movie? I suppose it made me anxious to get myself to the big city and MAKE movies, instead of just watching them.

Still, I'm a big fan of watching movies in theaters, I wish I could do it more often - it's kind of ironic for me to watch a movie about a grand theater on a little round disc that plays on my computer screen.

When they tore down the Showcase Cinemas in Dedham, MA, I had to go visit the pile of rubble (since they wouldn't let me swing the wrecking ball myself). I guess I had mixed emotions, happy that I didn't ever have to work there any more, but sad that part of my life was gone, with no chance of coming back. There's an upscale mall (excuse me, "lifestyle center") there now, actually I think the mall parking lot is where the movie theatre used to be - is that progress?

On a similar note, I found out today that my ex-father-in-law passed away, about a month ago. I don't know what's appropriate, since I hadn't seen the man in over 14 years, and there's a little piece of paper that says that we weren't officially family any more. Still, I'm dragged through the five stages all at once, sadness of course, plus denial since it happened a month ago and in Cleveland, and some anger since I wasn't told when it happened, so I had no chance to pay my respects. I'm a firm believer in going to other people's funerals (or else they won't come to mine...) but again, not sure what the protocol is with regards to the ex's family.

Like Jim Carrey's character, I never know when something will arise that forces me to remember the life I used to lead. Perhaps I've got mixed emotions for someone who accepted me as a part of his family, but later probably blamed me for a lot of things that weren't my fault (and some that probably were...)

Damn movie sucker-punched me with a Capra-esque ending - Jim Carrey's no Jimmy Stewart, but he sort of comes close here. The implication is that you can go home again, even if it's to someplace that wasn't your home to begin with. Again, is that progress?

Also starring Martin Landau (last seen in "Hollywood Homicide"), Bob Balaban (last seen in "Lady in the Water"), David Ogden Stiers, Ron Rifkin (last seen in "The Negotiator"), and a ton of character actors - Hal Holbrook (last seen in "Magnum Force"), James Whitmore (last seen in "Nuts"), Daniel Von Bargen (last seen in "A Civil Action"), Brent Briscoe, Brian Howe, plus cameos from Bruce Campbell (last seen in "Sky High"), Cliff Curtis (last seen in "Blow"), and the rare voice cameos (!) of Garry Marshall, Sydney Pollack, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, and Matt Damon.

RATING: 8 out of 10 boxes of Raisinets

Me, Myself & Irene

Year 2, Day 241 - 8/29/10 - Movie #607

BEFORE: Another form of mental illness explored tonight by Jim Carrey - multiple personality disorder. But it's one that Hollywood often mistakenly calls "schizophrenia" - which I believe is a totally different thing. Like "Dumb & Dumber", this was written and directed by the Farrelly Brothers.

THE PLOT: A nice guy cop with multiple personality disorder must protect a woman on the run from a corrupt ex-boyfriend and his associates.

AFTER: Sure enough, many times during this film, Jim Carrey's character is called a "schizo"...grrr, that's a pet peeve of mine. No Hollywood screenwriter ever takes the time to look up the symptoms of schizophrenia, which commonly manifests itself in audio hallucinations, paranoid delusions, and disorganized speech or thinking. It's a common enough mistake, but now that we have the internet, there are no more excuses - take a few minutes and look it up!

As stated, Jim Carrey's character, Charlie Baileygates has MPD, commonly called "split personality" - the second persona, Hank, surfaces whenever life gets him down, or he's in some kind of trouble. You know all those petty little annoyances, like someone cutting ahead of you in line, or denting your car, or just laughing at you? That's when Hank comes out to play - but he's an Alpha male with a gravelly Clint Eastwood voice, and he over-reacts, going right into fight mode.

The real reason for Hank's existence, is supposedly Charlie getting dumped by his wife and raising three children that are not genetically his (obviously, since they're African-American) but since the reality of his situation is too much for him to bear, he buries all of his negative emotions down deep. Of course that's not constructive, in fact it leads to all of Hank's DE-structive behavior.

It's actually an interesting concept for a screenplay, and a unique acting challenge - Carrey has to play two distinct sides of the same man's personality, but with different voices, different mannerisms, and different goals. Late in the film we see Carrey's two characters literally wrestling for control of his body - a trick I've only seen pulled off in two other movies - "All of Me" and "Fight Club". (Oh, I forgot, I'm not supposed to talk about "Fight Club"...)

Unfortunately, any insight into mental gymnastics or Cartesian dualism is pretty much negated by a succession of dick jokes, ass jokes, and other third-grade toilet-level humor. The bits with the dead cow didn't seem to connect to anything else, for example, nor did making fun of albinos, midgets, or Rhode Islanders. A lot of that just seemed like random mean-spiritedness.

On the positive side, I'll give points for using the great Junior Brown song "Highway Patrol" as an opening theme. Sure, it's a bit on the nose, but he's one of the few Country/Western acts I can tolerate. (Of course, my favorite Junior Brown song is "My Wife Thinks You're Dead", but that's another story...check it out if you get a chance though)

I'll rate this one just slightly above "Dumb & Dumber". Though there are parts of the plot that I just didn't understand - what was the actual crime/conspiracy going on? Was another mental patient inter-state road trip really necessary? What was the point of Charlie getting plastic surgery on his chin? And didn't Charlie's kids ever ask about their real father? I mean, they were portrayed as geniuses, but did they never once ask how their father was white? And why did the albino have a telescope on his glasses? There were so many little plot threads that never went anywhere...

Also starring Renee Zellweger (last seen in "Leatherheads"), Richard Jenkins (last seen in "Blue Steel"), Chris Cooper (last seen in "Money Train"), Robert Forster (last seen in "Firewall"), Anthony Anderson (last seen in "Life"), with cameos from Traylor Howard, Lenny Clarke (last seen in "Fever Pitch"), Tony Cox (last seen in "Blankman"), and apparently everyone the Farrelly brothers have ever met...

RATING: 4 out of 10 rum + cokes