Tag: jim rash

FLY ME TO THE MOON – Review

Yes, I see that title and I immediately picture “ole’ blue eyes”, a trench coat draped over a shoulder, crooning that catchy 1954 Bart Howard classic. And that’s just what the producers want to evoke, to get you in a nostalgic mood for a frothy romance set against the backdrop of the “space race”. Mission accomplished, but could a “rom-com” really work against the somber historical backdrop we’ve seen in heavy, serious films like FIRST MAN, A MILLION MILES AWAY, HIDDEN FIGURES, APOLLO 13, and the HBO miniseries, “From the Earth to the Moon”.Now, that’s the trick, much like the possible results facing NASA, Will it blast off or crash land? But it’s “star power” rather than rocket fuel that propels FLY ME TO THE MOON.

Modern movie audiences need a short primer on events 55 years ago, and the filmmakers provide a brief one for the film’s prologue, In 1968 the “whiz kids” in Cocoa Beach Florida are rushing to make good on JFK’s promise to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Leading the “brainiac bunch” is former fighter pilot Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) whose steely determination stems from his part in the tragic events of Apollo One a few years before. The story shifts to NYC as we meet advertising/marketing expert Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) who has just “put one over” on some auto execs. But her celebration is brief when she’s exposed by Nixon’s “special operative” Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson). Why? Well, he has a bigger client for her and her trusty aide Ruby (Anna Garcia) because the Prez needs help “selling” the space program to the populace. The women fly down to Florida in time for Kelly to have a “meet cute’ with Cole at Wolfie’s Diner. Things take a sobering turn when they meet again, as Cole has little time or respect for their publicity plans. But they finally realize they must work together to get the money pipeline flowing from a stubborn group of congressmen. But then their renewed attraction is almost snuffed out by the return of Berkus who tasks Kelly with creating a “set” where they can film a phony moon landing, in case Apollo 11 fails. Can she get everything together for this fraud without Cole finding out? Or will she listen to her heart and do the right thing for “the right stuff”?

That aforementioned “star power”? That is ably supplied by the pairing of the lead duo at the center of the plot, bringing true sparks to the often formulaic rom-com genre. Tatum proves that he’s got more dramatic depth than you might gather from his mesmerizing moves as MAGIC MIKE. He projects an “old school” screen hero’s sense of decency as the project-focused Davis who has a huge weight on his shoulders that could be erased if he can get this job done to honor his fallen teammates (the first trio) and perhaps his “captain”, who set the stage but can’t be there for the finale. Not surprisingly, fun and romance are neglected until he meets her. In a nice twist on the genre’s conventions, Johansson’s Kelly is the free spirit with shaky morals who lightens the load for Cole, who helps her regain a sense of right and wrong, putting honor before profit and chipping away at her cynicism (in her first scenes, Kelly is almost a “Donna Draper” in a riff on “Mad Men”). This role really taps into the charm she gleaned in her MCU role of the Black Widow.


The “support team” is led by the always interesting Harrelson whose laid-back persona is given a dangerous edge as a quip quickly morphs into a threat, punctuated by his black attire and ever-present switchblade (to slice citrus for cocktails, of course). And there’s some great work here by two other TV sitcom vets. Ray Romano uses his hangdog everyman charisma as Cole’s right-hand man, who feels more like a proud “uncle’ as he fills in the “backstory” for Kelly. The biggest “scene stealer” is Jim Rash, an Oscar-winning screenwriter but forever Dean Pelton of “Community”, as Kelly’s snippy, flamboyant director Lance Vespertine (the name speaks volumes) who brings a bitchy sense of camp to the fairly somber “conspiracy”. Kudos also to the “junior squad” led by the energetic Garcia who can’t suppress her hippie leanings along with the NASA comic tag team of Donald Elise Watkins and Noah Robbins who provide a great jolt of manic comic energy.

Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) and Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) in FLY ME TO THE MOON.

Guiding this talented ensemble is someone who’s best known for being a guiding force on the TV versions of several DC superheroes (streaming and broadcast), Greg Berlanti. This is actually his third feature film and a big dive into the mainstream as he harkens back to the “above the title” pairing of classic movie couples (Gable and Lombard, Bogie and Bacall, Tracy and Hepburn). Despite the somewhat lengthy 132-minute runtime, he keeps the story from Keenan Flynn and Bill Kirsten that Rose Gilroy crafted into a screenplay from getting too slogged down in space nostalgia. Like that neglected 80’s classic THE RIGHT STUFF it highlights the awe and wonder along with wit while mixing in the movie “mating rituals”. But it doesn’t leave out the sense of danger with several flashbacks to that fatal pre-launch tragedy to the hovering Berkus who could be more “spook” than a spy. The time period is recreated very well, though it may seem that it’s the early 60s since the engineers all have the white shirt/thin black tie basic except for the pseudo-turtlenecks favored by Cole, perhaps to set him apart or to better highlight Tatum’s rugged physique. As for Johansson, Kelly appears to channel Marilyn Monroe in her early makeup and hairstyles (those blonde “bobs” are dazzlin’) but she “loosens up’ by the finale, perhaps to reflect the changing times and her embracing a new “morality”. Unlike the teaming of Gosling and Blunt at the start of the Summer, this pair really connects as they size up each and verbally spur before the big “clinch”. The great “needle drops” of classic tunes really help “seal the deal” and send Kelly and Cole piloting fans of retro romance soaring “among the stars” in FLY ME TO THE MOON.

3 Out of 4


FLY ME TO THE MOON is now playing in theatres everywhere

NASA’s Apollo 11 Moon Landing Is The Real Star Of FLY ME TO THE MOON Trailer

On the morning of July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins sat atop another Saturn V at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The three-stage 363-foot rocket used its 7.5 million pounds of thrust to propel them into space and into history.

On July 20, 1969, at 10:56 p.m. EDT, Armstrong planted the first human foot on another world. With more than half a billion people watching on television, he climbed down the ladder and proclaimed: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

And now some 55 years later, NASA is preparing to send people back to the lunar surface. Scheduled for September 2025, the Artemis II flight test will be NASA’s first mission with crew under Artemis and will pave the way to land the first woman and next man on the Moon on Artemis III. Astronauts on their first flight aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft will confirm all of the spacecraft’s systems operate as designed with crew aboard in the actual environment of deep space.

We will finally return to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.

Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) and Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) in FLY ME TO THE MOON.

Today Sony Pictures and Apple TV have debuted the trailer for FLY ME TO THE MOON.

Starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, FLY ME TO THE MOON is a sharp, stylish comedy-drama set against the high-stakes backdrop of NASA’s historic Apollo 11 moon landing.

Brought in to fix NASA’s public image, sparks fly in all directions as marketing maven Kelly Jones (Johansson) wreaks havoc on launch director Cole Davis’s (Tatum) already difficult task. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, Jones is directed to stage a fake moon landing as back-up and the countdown truly begins…

From director Greg Berlanti, check out the new trailer.

The cast includes Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Nick Dillenburg, Anna Garcia, Jim Rash, Noah Robbins, Colin Woodell, Christian Zuber, Donald Elise Watkins, with Ray Romano and Woody Harrelson.

With a screenplay by Rose Gilroy, FLY ME TO THE MOON is based upon the story by Bill Kirstein & Keenan Flynn.

The comedy opens on July 12, 2024.

Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) and Henry Smalls (Ray Romano) in FLY ME TO THE MOON.

Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) in FLY ME TO THE MOON.

Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) and Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) in FLY ME TO THE MOON.

DOWNHILL – Review

Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the film DOWNHILL. Photo by Jaap Buitendijk. © 2020 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell star as a married couple who have their relationship shaken after near-miss with an avalanche while on a family ski vacation, in the dark comedy/drama DOWNHILL. Nat Faxon and Jim Rash co-direct this American re-make of 2014 FORCE MAJEURE, Swedish director Ruben Ostlund’s biting comedy about how a man’s reaction to danger undermines his relationship with his wife and children. The term “force majeure” means an irresistible compulsion, like the man’s self-preservation response.

Ruben Ostlund’s dark comedy was sharply funny as well as thought-provoking. Like most English-language re-makes of international hits, DOWNHILL is a paler version. Still, DOWNHILL has its moments, comic and otherwise, largely thanks to the fine work of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell. Their comic chemistry and separate work are the major reasons to see this film.

Americans Pete (Will Ferrell), a real estate dealer, and his lawyer wife Billie (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and their two teen-aged sons are on a long-awaited ski vacation at a luxury Austrian resort. That things might go a bit wrong are foreshadowed by the fact that they do not see any other children at the adult-focused resort, unlike the family-oriented one down the road. A strange, intrusive, and sexy hotel employee (Miranda Otto) adds to the slight unease yet the family quickly settles in and get out on the slopes.

But the happy family is unsettled by an incident that happens shortly after they sit down for lunch at an outside restaurant. A controlled avalanche comes shockingly close, sending the customers fleeing in fear of their lives. Although they are only dusted lightly with snow instead of buried under it, the result is devastating for the family as Billie discovers her husband bolted, leaving her to shelter their children on her own. To make matters worst, Pete acts like nothing happened, failing even to acknowledge what he just did.

While DOWNHILL follows the general plot outline of the original film, there are significant differences in both story and tone. The kids in the original are younger, a girl and a boy, while in the remake they are a pair of teen-aged boys, Finn (Julian Grey) and Emerson (Ammon Ford), who are happier with screen-time than skiing with the parents, which shifts the family dynamic. Rather than sharply focusing on the questions raised about his fundamental nature and his relationships with his wife and children, DOWNHILL dilutes that focus with other topics, such as mid-life crisis and grieving for a recent loss of his father. The second couple who are good friends in the original become a younger work acquaintance (played by Zach Woods) and his free-spirited new girlfriend (Zoe Chao), who are a less-welcome intrusion on the family vacation. Kristofer Hivju, the bearded redhead that audiences may recognize from “Game of Thrones,” played the friend in the original and appears briefly in DOWNHILL as a man in charge of avalanche-control for the ski resort, in one of the funnier scenes.

Watching DOWNHILL without seeing the original film might make one wonder why someone would re-make this story, as it seems much like any number of mildly entertaining family dramedies. However, those who did see FORCE MAJEURE will be left disappointed, as this re-make falls far short despite the determined efforts of the cast to add a little spark.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

SLIFF 2017 Review- BERNARD AND HUEY

 

BERNARD AND HUEY screens as part of the 26th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival on Sunday, November 5 at 6 PM at landmark’s Tivoli Theatre. For ticket information click HERE

Here’s a rarity. It’s a live-action feature film based on a comic that doesn’t involve brawny men in armored tights wailing on each other (and taking out entire city blocks). That’s because it’s based on a newspaper/magazine comic panel (like “The Far Side”) rather than those brightly colored page-turners from Marvel and DC. This is the brainchild of celebrated cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and uses recurring characters from the pages of the Village Voice and Playboy, spanning thirty years. When we first meet BERNARD AND HUEY, they’re in their early twenties, always on the make (or in their language “looking to make out”). Bespectacled, nebbishy Bernard is bemoaning his last lady, while brunt, surly Huey offers his “lil’ black book” while commenting on any female prospect within his scope of vision. From those first moments we know we’re in Feiffer territory with dialogue so similar to the exchanges between Jonathan and Sandy in the iconic 1971 classic CARNAL KNOWLEDGE. Jump to the present day and nearly 50 year-old Bernie (Jim Rash) has amassed much of said knowledge as a single book editor whose spartan apartment practically has a revolving bedroom door. Then we catch up with Huey (David Koechner), drunk, overweight, slovenly, as he’s being hauled back to his wife by his graphic novelist daughter Zelda (Mae Whitman). He escapes her clutches and heads right to a very stunned old bud Bernie. As the two re-connect, Huey sets up “shop” in Bernie’s pad, and while Bernie begins an ill-advised affair with Zelda, Huey gets his “mojo” back with several ladies including Bernie’s co-worker Mona (Nancy Travis) and his recent ex Roz (Sasha Alexander), an “age appropriate” therapist. When Zelda proves to be her father’s daughter,it’s Bernard that flounders in the “make out” scene.

 

Director Dan Mirvish expertly capture the Big Apple vibe as the two main characters wander endless streets and debate at countless dives and diners. Rash and Koechner are an engaging unlikely pair who know just the right “buttons” to push with each other (at times there’s a palpable air of potential violence in these encounters). The women here are more than just mere conquests or obstacles, really delivering a sharp verbal “smack-down” to their crude “come-ons (especially Huey). Whitman, in particular. is quite convincing as an artist that believes she just needs the right break, while not accepting any form of criticism about her gruesome imagery (all concern distorting of a certain organ). For fans of the formidable Feiffer, BERNARD AND HUEY is a must movie date.