Film

Black to the future

Men in Black III

When a film sequel is released, I like to go back and check what I thought of the previous chapter. After years of huffing model glue and playing high-impact sports with no helmet, my memory isn’t what it used to be, so I need to actually check the archives. I said this of Men in Black II: “If they should make another Men in Black, I hope they allow for an extra year of post-production and effects work, because the talent involved should never have been responsible for something that looks this lousy.” Oh, they allowed for a year and then some. It’s been nearly a decade since the last chapter in the Men in Black series, something I find a little shocking. The franchise has been a cash cow, and I expected to see one every four or five years. We should be up to Men in Black V or VI by now. This summer brings us Men in Black III and, thankfully, it’s a return to form in some ways. The effects are much better. Tommy Lee Jones, as Agent K, mentally checked out of this series after the first one, and he has a reduced role in this chapter. Most of the heavy lifting is handled by the capable, talented egomaniac Will Smith. His Agent J is still wisecracking with the best of them, and must travel back in time to stop a hideous alien monster (Jemaine Clement) from killing K and erasing him from history. I enjoy a good time travel yarn, and this is a fun one. J goes back to 1969, the year of the Amazin’Mets. Director Barry Sonnenfeld and his writers work the actual Mets World Series

into the plot through a magical scene involving Cleon Jones and the now extinct Shea Stadium. Mets fans will have tears in their eyes. Being that J is back in 1969, he will inevitably run into a younger version of his partner, played hilariously by young Tommy Lee Jones doppelganger Josh Brolin. Brolin has himself a good old time doing the Jones deadpan delivery, although his version of K is a little funnier and brighter—but not that much— by than the older one. Actually, Brolin is a betterBob Grimm Tommy Lee Jones than Tommy Lee Jones. bgrimm@ As Griffin, an alien being who can see all of newsreview.com the possible futures simultaneously, Michael Stuhlbarg creates something warm and funny out of a confounding premise. In fact, much of3 the time travel logic in this film is wacky, especially in the film’s ending. Given the warmth of the film’s finale, you will probably accept and enjoy it, even though it makes little to no sense. Emma Thompson is Agent O, replacing Rip Torn as the master of Men in Black headquarters. (Torn, who was probably busy drunkenly robbing a bunch of Macy’s department stores after midnight during production, has been written out of the series.) Alice Eve plays O in ’69, a believable substitute for a young Thompson. Sadly, David Cross, who appeared in the first two chapters of MIB, is absent from the proceedings. The film’s funniest spot belongs to Bill Hader making a cameo as undercover MIB agent Andy Warhol. Andy is getting a little tired of painting bananas and listening to sitar music. I heard a little hint of Stefon, Hader’s hilarious Saturday Night Live character, in his Warhol voice. Men in Black III allegedly had a lot of rewrites and production turmoil along the way to theaters. While that might be apparent in the weariness of Jones’performance, all other parties appear to be having a pretty good time. MIB III winds up being a decent summer diversion. It’s not half the fun of The Avengers, but it’s much better than MIB II, and Brolin is golden. This film marked the first movie featuring Smith in nearly four years. His last film was the awful Seven Pounds. His Internet Movie Database listing states he’s currently attached to I, Robot 2, Bad Boys 3 and Hancock 2. There are also rumors of another installment of I Am Legend. Looks like the Smith Sequel Machine will be returning to full force. Ω

Who’s the little guy?

1

POOR

2

FAIR

3

GOOD

4

VERY GOOD

5

EXCELLENT

5The Avengers Everything good about the last bunch of Marvel superhero movies comes together for one massive, excessively entertaining party. Director Joss Whedon hits all the right notes as Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the Hulk (newbie Mark Ruffalo) all get equal time in this well balanced, often funny, and completely satisfying cinematic experience. I wasn’t sure if they would pull this off, but they did, with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) once again bringing the fun as the villain. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) contribute mightily to the process, as does Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Good luck to all the rest of the summer movies in trying to top this one’s fun factor. And let it be said that this contains the best Hulk action put to film ever! Joss Whedon is a god.

1Battleship Based on the board game by Hasbro— always a harbinger of great film—this one throws aliens into the mix so as to not have a film with two fat guys sitting at a table playing Battleship while drinking milkshakes. Seriously, when I heard they were making a movie based on the Battleship board game, two fat guys drinking milk shakes and crying “You sunk my battleship!” was all I figured they might come up with. It’s not a board game that screams “super narrative!” Peter Berg directs the likes of Taylor Kitsch—in his second domestic box office dud following John Carter—Liam Neeson and Alexander Skarsgard in this Transformerswannabe that just sits in the ocean and doesn’t go anywhere. Sub-par special effects and stupid-looking humanoid aliens with porcupine beards don’t help matters much.

1Chernobyl Diaries The best thing I can say about this shoddy horror film is that it isn’t a found-footage movie. Oh, I’m sure the temptation to make it a found-footage film was there, what with American tourists daring to tread in the land of Chernobyl, and the fact this movie was co-written by Oren Peli, director of the first Paranormal Activity. What you basically get here is a foundfootage film without the found-footage part, meaning the movie is cheap looking, gimmicky and utterly lacking in originality, but none of the characters are actually filming what’s going on at the time. (Actually, there is one sequence where they do that, so this movie is about 2 percent found footage.) A bunch of young adults pay some Russian guy to take them to an abandoned city next to Chernobyl, where they get frightened by monster fish, bears, crazy dogs and eventually some sort of radioactive mutant humans, although we never really get to see those. A bunch of stupid characters acting dumber than spit and getting offed one by one in extremely boring fashion.

2Dark Shadows After the boring tragedy that was Alice in Wonderland, the normally reliable Tim Burton and Johnny Depp team up once again to induce nap time with this plodding adaptation of the cult fave vampire soap opera from the ’60s. Depp plays Barnabas Collins, cursed by an evil witch (Eva Green) two centuries ago and buried in the Earth. Somebody digs up his coffin to make way for a McDonald’s and, boom, Barnabas is strutting around in the ’70s. Or at least he should be. As it turns out, he just spends most of his time moping around his mansion droning his lines. This had the looks of something potentially funny and weird, but Burton actually goes for the soap opera feel, a move that doesn’t work on the big screen. I would really like to see Depp do another real drama or smart comedy without burying himself under makeup and wigs. Having seen what he looks like in The Lone Ranger, I know I won’t be getting my wish soon. 2The Dictator Sacha Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles deliver their first misfire with this uninteresting comedy about a ruthless dictator (Cohen) getting lost in Manhattan, where he falls in love with a hippie (Anna Faris). Unlike the Boratand Brunofilms, this one actually has a narrative, and while there are some decent scattered laughs, the overall feeling of the movie is a little too ugly and drab to be recommended. Mind you, I did laugh out loud a couple of times, especially during the dictator’s helicopter tour of Manhattan. And Cohen’s final speech is actually brilliant—a sort of the dark, evil cousin of Chaplin’s speech at the end of The Great Dictator. Still, more jokes fall flat than succeed, and this just feels like a waste of Cohen’s talents. Ultimately, the character is so unlikable it’s just a drag to spend time with him.

2The Five-Year Engagement This one feels more like a 50-year engagement. Jason Segel and Emily Blunt star as a couple who get engaged but wind up postponing their wedding for career considerations. While Segel and Blunt have some decent comedic chemistry, the movie just drags on and on and on. What’s more, while they work as a comedic team, they don’t really click as a romantic couple, making it all seem a little strange that they’re together in the first place. Directed by Nicholas Stoller, who co-wrote the screenplay with frequent writing partner Segel, the two fail to capture the magic that made their prior effort Forgetting Sarah Marshallso funny. The humor here is mostly flat, peppered with occasional laughs, which mostly come from Segel’s character trying to adjust to life in Michigan after living the big life in San Francisco. Segel says he won’t be in the next Muppetmovie because he wants to do human movies. As this movie shows, humans can be really boring.

2The Hunger Games For a big blockbuster based on an extremely popular novel, director Gary Ross’ film looks mighty cheap. Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen, forced to represent her district in a televised contest where young people must battle to the death. While Lawrence is a great actress, she doesn’t fit the role of starving teen very well. Josh Hutcherson plays her fellow district rep, Peeta, and he suits the role just fine. I just couldn’t get by the drab look of the movie, and the horrible shaky cam that manages to destroy the action visuals instead of enhancing them. Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Elizabeth Banks and Woody Harrelson are all saddled with silly getups for their roles, which might’ve played OK had another director filmed them. The movie is just a strange clash of tones, never has a consistent feel, and is surprisingly boring considering the subject matter.

4The Pirates! Band of Misfits This movie excels in a brand of weird, random comedy that had me laughing out loud often. Not so much a pirate movie than a fictional goof about what a jerk Charles Darwin could’ve been in his younger days, it has a lot of laughs that come out of nowhere, make no sense, and that’s something I happen to love very much when done right. Hugh Grant most entertainingly voices the Pirate Captain, trying his best to win the coveted Pirate of the Year Award, which usually goes to Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven). Determined to score a lot of booty and increase his chances for victory in the contest, he sets out to pillage a bunch of boats and gather the gold. He happens upon Darwin (David Tennant), who points out that his trusted parrot is, in fact, a dodo. The film is crazy funny—Queen Victoria is the villain!—and just the ticket for parents looking to be entertained by a kid movie.

Century Park Lane 16, 210 Plumb Lane: 824-3300 Century Riverside 12, 11 N. Sierra St.: 786-1743 Century Summit Sierra 13965 S. Virginia St.: 851-4347 www.centurytheaters.com Grand Sierra Cinema 2500 E. Second St.: 323-1100 Nevada Museum of Art, 160 W. Liberty St.: 329-3333 Sparks Carson City

Galaxy Fandango, 4000 S. Curry St.: 885-7469 Tahoe

Horizon Stadium Cinemas, Stateline: (775) 589-6000  Starting at $20,100**  3-year/ 36,000-mile No Cost Maintenance***

Save up to 75% on Gift Certificates! Visit www.newsreview.com

*37 Hwy/29 City MPG with manual transmission. EPA estimate. Actual mileage will vary with options, driving conditions, driving habits and vehicle operation.**MSRP, including destination and handling charges. Price excludes license, registration, taxes, options and labor to install accessories. Certain features shown are optional accessories. Actual price determined by your dealer.***All 2012 MINI Passenger Cars come with MINI No Cost Maintenance standard for 3 years or 36,000 miles (whichever comes first), MINI New Passenger Car Limited Warranty standard for 4 years or 50,000 miles (whichever comes first), and 24-hour Roadside Assistance for 4 years/unlimited miles. Plus warranty against rust perforation standard for 12 years/unlimited miles. All programs begin on the original in service date. See the MINI Service and Warranty booklet for more details and specific terms, conditions and limitations.© 2012 MINI, a division of BMW of North America, LLC. The MINI name, model names and logo are registered trademarks.