Film

Multi-movie mash-up

Central Intelligence

While it doesn’t boast much along the lines of originality, Central Intelligence winds up being an above average action/comedy buddy movie thanks to its stars, Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. The guys belong together. The plot feels like a bunch of parts from other movies cobbled together to make a whole. It has elements of Lethal Weapon, Grosse Pointe Blank, Just Friends, and even a little Sixteen Candles, all stitched together, albeit capably, by director Rawson Marshall Thurber (We’re the Millers). It’s a well-oiled movie Frankenstein. Johnson and Hart wind up being a strong screen duo, with Johnson actually scoring most of the laughs. Hart, who certainly chips in on the laughs front, actually delivers one of the more well rounded, warm performances of his career. The pre-opening credits sequence gives us Calvin (Hart), the most popular guy in his high school getting honored at a pep rally. In the boys’ locker room, obese Bob (Johnson, aided by some pretty funny CGI) is taking a shower to the tune of his favorite jam, En Vogue’s “My Love.” Mean bully Trevor (Dylan Boyack) and his cronies spy Bob, pull him from the shower, and slide his naked body into the pep rally. Calvin takes pity on him and drapes him with his letterman jacket. Bob vanishes from school never to be seen again. Cut to present day, where Calvin is an accountant getting passed over for promotions. He gets a Facebook invite for beers from somebody named Bob Stone, which he accepts because he’s bored. He winds up in a bar with a totally transformed Bob, who has gone from being morbidly obese to being somebody who looks a lot like the Rock.

Bob, who admits to worshipping Calvin over the years, turns out to be a rogue CIA agent being pursued by his superior (Amy Ryan). He enlists Calvin’s help in detecting some codes, or some nonsense like that, and Calvin finds himself in the adventure of his life. Again, this movie feels a lot like movies that have come before it. Heck, even that by Bob Grimm recent Netflix Adam Sandler film, The Do-Over, practically has the same plot. bgrimm@ What puts this over the top is the chemistry newsreview.com between the two stars. They have a very winning presence together. 3 Johnson makes his Bob childlike in many ways, making it a mystery whether he is really a man-child, or whether it is just an act to pull Calvin into his scheme. Johnson plays him overly polite, with echoes of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Twins. Yeah, there’s another movie Central Intelligence has something in common with. Countering Johnson’s simple yet centered character is Hart’s uptight, unsatisfied Calvin. There are moments in the movie, especially in the opening sequence, where Hart plays the part perfectly, mixing his patented brand of hyper humor with a certain sweetness. He makes it easy to root for Calvin on his road to redemption, while Johnson’s Bob is so likeable you’d accept him as a good or bad guy. The film ends with the requisite high school reunion featuring some welcomed surprise cameos that won’t be given away here. The producers have managed to score some big guest stars. In a credited performance, Aaron Paul shows up in a small role as Bob’s former partner. There’s a nod to Breaking Bad that gets a good laugh. This is the sort of movie that goes down easy in the summertime. I actually watched it at a drive-in, and the movie perfectly suited the drive-in experience. So, yeah, I’m encouraging you to find a drive-in playing Central Intelligence. Close your windows though. Mosquitos can ruin a flick. This probably won’t be the last we see of Calvin and Bob. Central Intelligence has franchise written all over it, and for those of you missing the Lethal Weapon movies, this is a capable substitute. Ω

“Hey, man. Is the director holding the GrossPointeBlank script again?”

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excellent 4 Captain America: Civil War This is a nice blast of superhero fun that finds a diplomatic way to include many Marvel favorites, even introducing a few characters to the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe, without feeling crowded or rushed. Front and center, there’s Steve Rogers (former Human Torch Chris Evans), a.k.a. Captain America, still having bro issues when it comes to the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Cap wants to back up his former best friend, but the guy committed some pretty shady acts while brainwashed, some of them very hard to defend. Captain America has to make some hard choices. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) thought Age of Ultron sucked for more than the obvious reasons. On top of being kind of boring, it left death and destruction in its wake, as did the far more exciting original The Avengers. World leaders want to put the Avengers in check, using them as a sort of alternative to nuclear weapons. Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr., still owning it) suffering a crisis of conscience, agrees to the proposed accord. Rogers thinks it’s bullshit and won’t sign. This works as a fine setup for an eventual battle between Iron Man and Captain America, where both sides have compelling reasons to fight.

3The Conjuring 2 As he did with TheConjuring, writerdirector James Wan uses the story of a supposedly real poltergeist in TheConjuring 2. The first film involved a haunting here in the U.S., while the sequel draws upon the infamous Enfield Poltergeist that allegedly occurred in England in the late ’70s. Wan has tapped into something interesting with this franchise. Two films in, it shows some decent durability and originality. It’s also pretty scary. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as the Warrens, paranormal investigators who’ve visited many legendary haunted spaces, including Amityville and Enfield. Wan, of course, blows up their involvement in each of these cases to deliver a platform for fictional circumstances and scares. While not quite as good as The Conjuring, this is a sequel that mostly does its predecessor proud. It provides a lot of good jump scares, especially from a creepy demon nun who appears to be getting her own movie in the near future.

3Dark Horse Whether or not you agree in principle with the notion of racehorses, this is a moving documentary about a group of people in Wales who decide to finance one. Their horse, Dream Alliance, is a gangly youngster who grows up to be a solid jumper. Through interviews and archive footage, we see the horse from birth straight through to many of his races, where he proved an unlikely champion. Of course, tragedy strikes during one of the races, and the movie becomes the story of an amazing comeback. Or, depending on your point of view, it becomes the story of a bunch of strange folks in Wales pushing a beautiful animal well beyond the point of reason so it can keep jumping for their amusement and profit. The end results are uplifting and happy but perilously close to being extremely sad. The documentary is entertaining, but it will definitely have you thinking about the treatment of animals for sport.

3Finding Dory This sequel to Finding Nemo goes a little darker than its predecessor. Ellen DeGeneres returns as Dory, the lovable fish with short-term memory loss. An event triggers a memory of family in her little brain, and she sets off on a journey to find her mom and dad (voiced by Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy). Pals Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence) join Dory on her quest, which culminates in an aquarium amusement park graced with voice announcements by the actual Sigourney Weaver. Dory winds up in a touch pond, in a bucket of dead fish, and swimming around in a lot of dark pipe work. In some ways, this is to Finding Nemo what The Empire Strikes Back was to StarWars. It’s a darker, slightly scarier chapter, that still delivers on the heartwarming elements and laughs. DeGeneres still rules as the voice of Dory. Stay for the credits to see a rather lengthy final scene.

4The Lobster This is as brutal a satire you will ever see. Writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos gives us a world where being single is so frowned upon, you will be transformed into the animal of your choice if you don’t find a partner in an allotted time. Colin Farrell stars as David, a recently dumped man who must stay at a hotel with his brother, who is also his dog, and find a new mate, or become a lobster. He eventually finds himself living in the woods with the leftover single people, who must dodge daily hunting expeditions by people looking to extend their time before animal transformation (they earn extra days for every single person they bag). David eventually meets Short Sighted Woman (Rachel Weisz) among the singles, and he finds himself needing to make some big decisions on how to start a relationship with her. The film is intentionally drab in its look, with all of the actors delivering their lines with nearly no emotion. The effect is just plain nasty, a scathing indictment on a society that puts too much pressure on individuals to become couples. It’s often extremely funny, with an equal amount of necessary unpleasantness.

4Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping It’s been nine years since the comedy trio Lonely Island—Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer—made its cinematic debut with the now cult fave Hot Rod. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping gives them a chance to play in their favorite sandbox: the music world. The results are what feel like the first fully realized Lonely Island movie. Given how damn funny the movie is, let’s hope there are many more to follow. All three members of the Lonely Island contribute as writers and performers, while Taccone and Schaffer handle directing chores. The movie goes along the mockumentary route, clearly spoofing all of those bio films from the likes of Justin Bieber, the Jonas Brothers and Katy Perry. Samberg headlines as Conner 4 Real, a former member of the boy band/rap group the Style Boyz, who has gone his own way with a successful solo career. After that initial success, Conner’s latest solo album is tanking—Rolling Stone rated it a shit emoji—and his career handling has entered the panic phase. He goes on tour with an opening act that’s better than him. He gets sponsored by appliances that play his music when you operate them. And he basically sells out like a whore.

3Raiders: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made After seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark, 12 year-old Eric Zala got the idea to remake the movie, shot for shot, as an experiment with his buddies. Over the next six years, they did just that, doing a remarkable job of recreating the legendary Spielberg film note for note. This film captures the creative team as they set out to film the one shot they never got: the massive airplane explosion after the fight with the big, bald Nazi. There’s a lot of fun stuff about the making of the movie, including the time the boys almost burned a house down. They also almost burned one of the actors, suffocated another with a plaster mold on his face, and used a little puppy instead of a monkey for the infamous Nazi salute monkey scene. The film includes interviews with director Eli Roth and Ain’t it Cool News founder Harry Knowles, major champions of the project.

2X-Men: Apocalypse After scoring a huge critical and box office success with X-Men: Days of Future Past, Bryan Singer’s triumphant return to the franchise, 20th Century Fox wisely brought the director back for this one. However, in a move that induces head scratching, Fox cut the budget for the current installment, while padding the cast and upping the action quotient. Actually, this is the studio that screwed up Fantastic Four, so maybe the shortchanging of a reliable franchise isn’t all that surprising. There are portions of the movie that are sloppier than the usual Singer offerings, and quite a few moments have cut-rate CGI. The flaws eventually pile up, and while there are some nice, enjoyable stretches, it’s a bit of a mess in the end—despite powerful work from Michael Fassbender as Magneto and new-to-thefranchise Oscar Isaac as the menacing villain Apocalypse. Before the opening credits, which look like shit, we get a quick back story for Apocalypse. En Sabah Nur (Isaac), an ancient Egyptian, merges with some sort of ancient mystical being, thus becoming the world’s first mutant, or something like that. He’s then buried under a crushed pyramid for centuries. What follows are too many characters demanding subplots and, ultimately, the worst chapter in the X-Men franchise.