Comedy

This movie helps you understand the Disney purchase of Pixar.  When Disney is stealing story, characters, plot, settings, and basically everything from Dreamworks… well, you know they’ve hit rock bottom.  The film is almost a carbon copy of last years Madagascar and despite the fact it steals everything but the kitchen sink it still took six writers to come up with this script.  Really?  Six writers?  For this? 

Is it worth seeing?  Did you like Madagascar?  Would you have liked it without Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimer and Jada Pinkett Smiith?  If the answer is yes than this summer’s good dumb fun flick for the whole family is just waiting for you.

The Wild
2 & 1/2 Stars

If you missed seeing Madagascar (check out Aaron’s review here) on the big screen here’s you chance!  Wow folks, Disney animation is in such a state of decline that it’s now stealing plot, character, scenes, dialogue, and story from Dreamworks.  Maybe Mickey Mouse needs to get a second job.

A group of animals leave the zoo and travel around New York then make their way on a boat to a beach and into the jungles of “the wild.”  There they are met by a tribe of strange singing and dancing creatures with a wacky ruler who puts one of the group in charge. 

Any of this sound familiar?  Well it should because it’s the exact plot to last year’s Madagascar but somehow it also turns out to be the plot to The Wild with only a few minor differences.  This time there is a lion (Kiefer Sutherland) and a giraffe (Jeneane Garofalo) but the zebra and hippo have been replaced by a squirrel (James Belushi), a snake (Richard Kind), and a koala bear (Eddie Izzard).  And the wacky but cute lemurs who sing and dance are replaced by the wacky but creepy wildebeasts who sing and dance (the leaders played here by William Shatner and Patrick Warburton in roles they could, and seemingly did, do in thier sleep).  The main structure of the story stays the same except this time the group leaves to rescue the lion’s son (Greg Cipes) rather than the zebra.

Along the way there’s some nice music, tons and tons of (rather pointless and monotonous) dialogue, and a few clever jokes.  Kids will probably enjoy the film and it’s the type of nice dumb summer comedy that seems to play well with families.  But, aside from the similarities with the superior Madagascar, which itself is only so-so, there are a few problems.

First off there are some mind-numbing inexcusable missteps and miscues.  One such example: the group of animals escape the New York Zoo and drive around the city in a dump truck.  Aside from how lame that sounds the computer animation people didn’t create a single car (parked or moving) or a single person walking around the city as they drive through the completely empty and spotless streets of New York including Times Square.  Did I fall asleep?  Are they doing an animated version of Vanilla Sky?  Or did they just run out of money in the animation budget?  I would rather except those excuses than the more obvious one that the creators saw this as a meaningless kids film that didn’t need the level of detail and realism you would get in a Powerpuff Girls episode.  There are quite a few such problems in the film though this is one of the most glaring.

The acting is fine but only Izzard’s koala bear is given any interesting dialogue (and you can tell most of his funny bits were all ad-libbed).  Shatner and Walburton are pretty good as the villains (aside from being so far over-the-top they make Bobcat Goldthwait look sedated).  But when the most interesting characters of a movie are villains who still aren’t that compelling you know you’ve run into a disasterous dud of a Disney film (yeah, I like my alliteration).

The animation is the computer style that tries to add a bit of realism with showing you every hair or scail on the animals.  While interesting to look at I prefer the older style of animation than this new look that hasn’t yet been perfected.  And even if it is pretty to look at and does give you a couple chuckles that’s not saying much for a feature length animated film from Disney.  A big miss here for the house that Mickey built.  Hopefully the Pixar deal will breathe some much needed life into what used to be the best animated studio around because all its doing right now is making Dreamworks look much better by comparision.

Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear give us the odd pairing of the hitman and the salesman in Mexico where margaritas aren’t the only thing that tastes better.  Brosnan kicks some serious ass as the hitman who has lost his edge but not his inappropriate sense of humor.

The Matador
3 & 1/2 Stars

Pierce Brosnan is funny.  It’s been so many years since Remington Steele that I had forgotten how funny he could be.  If The Tailor of Panama was a realistic take on his Bond character The Matador is the comedic take.  Brosnan owns the screen in this nice little gem.

Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) is a struggling businessman who has traveled to Mexico with his business partner to try and put together a deal to save his livelihood.  In the hotel bar one night he meets Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan) an interesting but rather uncouth gentleman who buys him a drink.  Aganist his better judgement Danny spends some time with Julian and learns what he does for a living.  Julian is a hitman, though one who is beginning to lose his edge. 

Time passes and Julian has botched another job so badly that his bosses have put a hit out on the hitman.  With nowhere else to go he goes to stay with Danny and his wife Bean (Hope Davis) hoping to guilt Danny into helping to get him out of this mess and remind Danny of the favor he owes.

Brosnan is terrific as the friendless lone gunman who doesn’t really know how to act with people (his comments to Danny in the bar are hysterical!)  Kinnear works well as a straight man to Brosnan’s antics and Davis, who I normally don’t like, is well cast as Danny’s wife.  There are many small characters but the film rests on the odd couple relationship between Danny and Julian who aren’t quite friends but something more than strangers.

The movie skips around a little too much and could use one last edit as the film is slightly uneven in its tone.  I also wasn’t a fan of the large full screen fonts in presenting a new location or story transition.

The Matador is a good comedy that allows Brosnan to go full out and give one hell of a performance.  Though not great, I’d put this at the top of pretty good comedies of the year such as Waiting…, Cassanova, and The Weather Man, it’s definately worth checking out for a very different type of comedy than the usual Hollywood fare.