Mr. Bean's Holiday Review

August is considered by box office analysts to be the deadest month for films. It's the month where studios release the clunkers that are not expected to make a good profit and won't go over with audiences. Both usually tend to happen about 70% of the time. Mr. Bean's Holiday doesn't do anything that will make the month of August a better month for films and it just keeps the trend going of bad movies coming out in August.

Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) is back and causing trouble in France. After winning a raffle which grants him a vacation to Cannes, he takes his trusty digital video camera to document his trip from beginning to end. When Bean asks for a man to record him boarding a train, that man misses his train as well as leaving his son (Max Baldry) on the train. Bean becomes a guardian to the boy, all the while travelling to Cannes to reuinte the son with his father.

It's been ten years since the last Bean film came out and perhaps the studio instead of waiting for so long to make a new one, shouldn't have made it in the first place. What doesn't work with this film is the obvious and its the same reason why almost all comedy skits don't translate well to film. To take a sketch that works great in 30 minutes and stretch it out to a feature length time will not work. That's specific with the genre of short skit comedy. Even though director Steven Bendelack has an extensive resume in television, he can't bring that many original physical and sight gags to this film. It gets tiring seeing Bean repeat himself over and over with the same childish gags.

The film does not work also, because of the change in character of Mr. Bean. Atkinson describes Bean as "a child in a grown man's body." In this movie however, he's just stupid at times. Not that he was incredibly intelligent in the original show it should be pointed out. His inteptness is quite irritating rather than comical and I almost feel sorry for him, but alas I do not.

Another aspect that really irked me about this film was the plot surrounding Mr. Bean becoming the guardian of this young boy. The boy is not an American but Russian. Perhaps Russians view strangers with different eyes than Americans. Regardless, I could not buy that this young boy took a liking so quick to Bean. Bean was the reason that this kid got separated from his father and I couldn't belive he would warm up to this fifty year old, six foot tall man so fast. I could be watching too much To Catch a Predator, but it's just really something that didn't do it for me.

The film has a few laughs but I will not give these away. I will say a good bucket of them comes courtesy of Willem Dafoe who plays a self-absorbed filmmaker whose having his latest fillm screened at Cannes. Look at the credits closely to that film and you'll see what I mean.

It's unfortunate that Bean has to go out with a bomb. What was a great character that reminded us of such classic physical comedians as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton has been relagated to a bumbling fool with little comedic value.

Final Grade: C-

Rush Hour 3 Review

The saying "Three's a Charm" is tossed around often many times. Very rarely can it be applied to a film of any genre. Return of the Jedi for example, is not better than the other two films of the original trilogy, however, it is still a great film. In the case of Rush Hour 3, unfortunatly it is more suffice to say its suffering from the "the Terrible Threes."

Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) and Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) are teaming up once again to investigate Triads, a Chinese equivalent of the American Mafia. It brings them to France where a French dancer (Noémie Lenoir) is believed to have the evidence that is connected to the criminals. As a result of this, all three are becoming targets of the Triads.

It should be stated on the record that I did enjoy both Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2. I found both to be great comedy films with a classic straight man and comedic foil for a contempory audience. Another fact that should be pointed out is that Rush Hour 2 made a good amount of its money right after 9/11 (the movie was released on August 3rd 2001), considering the state of America at that time. With Rush Hour 3, its the same gags with Chris Tucker being the stereotypical loudmouth black man, who always says something in a high-pitched yelp. It's as if the writers watched the first two films and copied everything that was good about it, yet something happened on the way to the forum and it turned out the opposite. The film is quite funny in some parts, other parts will are nothing more than a chuckle. But it's Chris Tucker who is responsible for both some of the funny parts and immensely unfunny parts. Chris Tucker becomess more and more of a caricature of himself in this film its almost at times sad to watch. This movie has other stereotypes as well that are particullary not funny. One of them being a Frenchman who is anti-American and believes that all Americans are nothing but war mongers.

If there is another thing disappointing about this movie, its Max von Sydow. He does absolutly nothing to further the story of the film. He seems to be more window dressing than an actual purpose of the film. He's good but something tells me the casting director needed a great actor merely to try to lend this film credibility. It's quite unfortunate he is not used properly.

As it is known, this film is directed by Brett Ratner. Now he can make movies that general audiences will like, but he can't make movies that will stand the test of time. Audiences are going to like this for the simplistic, annoying, and stereotypical characteristics of this film, overlooking that much of the comedy is nothing that is worth laughing much about. It is quite a disappointing film

Final Grade: C+

Cop Pushes Reporter...

I think it's a fact that most people do not like reporters. Oh yes, there are those of you who adore Katie Couric and others who masquerade as journalists but that's beside the point. The point of this blog post is to show this video that I've gotten from YouTube. Personally, for me it is absolute disgusting to watch.

Now to put a little backstory behind this. Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa is currently caught up in a scandal involving in an extra marital affair and just like any politician who's caught in a scandal they don't really want to talk about it. Well to make a long story short, the mayor was at an event at the Port of Los Angeles where understandably, he was hounded by reporters asking questions about the affair. Unfortunatly, one of the reporters, Alicia Unger of KAZA-TV, tried to run ahead of the pack and as you can see, one of the planiclothes police officers pushed her against a steel cargo container.

What was the response by the police? According to the LA Times: "Port Police Chief Ronald Boyd declined to comment on whether [the office] violated department policy by pushing the reporter against a cargo container." Interesting response. I had no idea that it was a policeman's job to push an unarmed female reporter against a steel object. And its quite obvious the gentleman enjoyed doing what he did. He's smiling after the fact. The sad thing is this didn't have to happen the way it did. This woman was trying to do her job which is asks questions. The police officer could've just held his ground to prevent her and the other reporters from going past whatever invisible line the mayor wished to be keep the reporters from crossing. It would be a bad day day for journalists if this police officer got away with what he did.

The Transformers: The Movie Review

The Transformers series has survived in the entertainment market for over twenty years. With countless TV series, down your throat merchandising of toys, and a recent live action film to boot, this exercise in mass marketing a toy is probably not going to die that soon. However, without saying anymore that is possibly making Transformer fans cry, the 1986 animation film is a fun and energetic film that will not disappoint its fan base and even might make new ones.

The film starts fast and with only a narration to backup those who don't know a thing about the TV series which this film follows. The Autobots (the good robots) are planning to strike the Decepticons (the bad robots) whom now control Cybertron. However, the Autobots do not have it easy as a gigantic planet that destroys everything in its path is targeting a powerful object that the Autobots possess. The film features the voices of Leonard Nimoy, Eric Idle, Judd Nelson and Orson Welles (in his final film).

First to air some laundry. I am not familiar with anything that happens before this movie, as in what happens in the TV series. Going into this, I only know what I've learned from the live action movie, which I felt was good enough to know. However there is a narration that helps clear up the back story that will satisfy most viewers. It's necessary to point out this movie is a product of the 80's and to many, will seem dated. The most prominent being the heavy rock soundtrack playing in the background playing in battle scenes. Speaking of the battle scenes, they are very well edited and crafted. It is very easy to tell who is fighting who (a problem the live action film had). The animation is done in the classic, hand drawn fashion and it looks very good, even after twenty years. The voice acting has to be given the most praise though. The voices are all done by well-esteemed actors (from Robert Stack to Orson Welles) and their voices fit well with their characters and helps bring life to them as well.

To point out only the good of this movie would be disingenuous as the thing separating it from very good to great is the lack of character development. Save for a narration, there is none on the individual robots or the two human characters in the film. It maybe Transformers but it's also Transformers: The Movie and the writers shouldn't have skipped that point. Alas, it is also not a Merchant-Ivory production so if you're watching it only because it has robots killing each other in it, you probably will not come out disappointed.

Final Grade: B+