Sheet-y Saturday.

Where we take a look at posters for upcoming features.

Even if this poster is absolutely ridiculous in terms of laziness (Nancy Meyers much, anyone?) there is something about Meryl Streep that always makes everything better. Her sly look and smile in this picture, accompanied by the title of the book she's reading, tell us more about the movie than the trailer! Apparently the marketing team was aware of this and they decided to concentrate just on the picture and make the rest a mess of typography, colors (where should I read first?) and unreadable taglines.  

Charlize Theron is badasssss and that's pretty much all there is to this.

Which of these two do you think represent their movies best? Excited about post-Oscar Meryl?

Crazy, Stupid, Love. **

Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Cast: Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone

Analeigh Tipton, John Carroll Lynch, Jonah Bobo

Josh Groban, Kevin Bacon, Marisa Tomei

Despite how generic its title made it sound (just a bunch of adjectives and a noun thrown in together), Crazy, Stupid, Love. seemed promising because of the people who star in it and the men behind the camera. The film contains none of the loony excitement of Ficarra and Requa's I Love You Phillip Morris. which isn't a perfect movie by any means but still thrives with something that makes it feel truly alive. Of course, it's not like they have to repeat a style on every movie, that would certainly limit their artistic blooming, but their work in this film seems stilted to say the least.

The screenplay, written by Dan Fogelman, works as Magnolia lite; we meet several characters living in Los Angeles whose lives get intertwined and united by the universal subject of love.

Carell plays Cal Weaver, a sad-eyed man whose life turns upside down after his wife Emily (Moore) confesses she cheated with one of her co-workers (Bacon) and asks for a divorce.

Cal becomes an even more tragic figure and spends the nights away crying at a hip bar where he catches the eye of the womanizing Jacob Palmer (Gosling) who has just been rejected for the first time in his life by a young, lively lawyer called Hannah (Stone). Perhaps seeking to atone for the sin committed against his masculinity, Jacob decides to "Miyagi" Cal and turn him into a womanizer.

While it can be said that Cal and Jacob share the main plot, the peripheral stories around them are what truly make the film work better than it should.

Cal's son Robbie (Bobo) for example, plays perhaps the film's most romantic role as he engages in a battle to win the heart of his babysitter Jessica (the wide eyed Tipton whose smile evokes a young Shelley Duvall) who is 4 years older than him.

Perhaps the movie works best when it occurs as individual vignettes, say Cal's crazy one night stand with insane teacher Kate (Tomei playing a dignified version of batshit crazy) is joyous to say the least and the always fantastic Moore turns Emily's scenes of quiet sorrow into complete acting courses.

Yet as it travels from Jacob's James Bond-ish house to Hannah's own disastrous affair with a sadsack colleague (played with enough douche baggery by Groban to make us root for Jacob) we realize that Requa and Ficarra can not, for the life of them, juggle smartly with so many characters.

The film feels as if they forget about some of their characters and then upon remembering their existence try to make them do something funny, cute or silly, as if to say "hey I'm still here". The plot has some serious time conundrums and you might find yourself surprised to realize that one year has supposedly gone by in the movie when it ends. Even if the performances are charming (Emma Stone's giant laughter is deemed to overthrow the reign of Julia Roberts') the film never feels particularly crazy, stupid or even romantic.

During the most inspired sequence in the running time, all the characters come together through a divine intervention that would've made Moliere giggle, during a single moment the entire film comes together perfectly and its theme of universality clicks as we realize that yeah, we're all on the same boat when it comes to lámour.

However the film keeps on going after this and the spark of magic it obtained is reduced to a series of preachy "we all can change and be forgiven" moments where once again the pain of individuality becomes too tedious to watch.

Despicable Me **

Director: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud

It's probably quite lame to bring Pixar up into every discussion about digitally animated films; however, movies like Despicable Me make it impossible to ignore how the vastly superior studio has spoiled audiences with the top notch quality of their work and probably has terrified the competition into thinking that in order to achieve some of their success, they must make thinly disguised versions of Pixar movies.
This one borrows from The Incredibles and Toy Story to tell the story of Gru (voiced by Steve Carrell) a world class villain with big issues.
Threatened by the arrival of a hipper villain named Vector (voiced by Jason Segel) and his lifelong desire to please his mother (voiced by Julie Andrews) he decides to show 'em all once and for all that he's the ultimate badass by stealing the moon.
For this he adopts three cute, little orphaned girls, don't ask, because they're the only way for him to steal a shrinking laser, again don't ask.
Soon we have established several archetypes that will obviously be fulfilled by the film's eventual positive message and give the filmmakers enough wacky situations to make the most out of 3D technology.
But that's it. Oh and there's Gru's minions, a lazy copy of the Toy Story aliens who ooh, aaah and are shown doing cute things whenever the plot doesn't know where to go. The movie is comprised of a series of situations during which we're either supposed to laugh, go "awww" or, well that's pretty much it.
The action sequences have a Loony Tunes meets Spy vs. Spy feel to them that might steal a giggle now and then but get tiresome after a while, the more emotional scenes are made out of sweet moments where the awkward Gru begins to love the little girls (and who can blame him when one of the kids has the same eyes as the cat from Shrek?)
What the movie lacks is complete character development. Just because we know Gru had a father-less childhood (his dad might be the Russell Brand voiced Dr. Nefario but this is never made clear) doesn't mean that all his problems will be solved by becoming a father himself.
It's this kind of facile way out that makes the movie almost instantly forgettable.
Also, who's there to protect people from these villains? Doesn't comic book style evil and good appear at the same time?
What are Vector and Gru gaining from being villainous? In the end don't they become each other's antithesis and therefore a hero/villain dichotomy develops?
Perhaps not, the filmmakers don't intend for you to question this because...ZOMG look at how cute those minions are!

Date Night ***

Director: Shawn Levy
Cast: Steve Carell, Tina Fey
Mark Wahlberg, Taraji P. Henson, Jimmi Simpson, Common
William Fichtner, Leighton Meester, Kristen Wiig
Mark Ruffalo, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Ray Liotta

Hollywood often has the mind of a child; they often team up rising stars and robots or famous legends and musicals, assuming that putting together A and B will always result in a hit.
More often than not this strategy implodes all over them but when they decided to put together the two funniest people in showbiz things actually worked out in the most unexpected ways.
Tina Fey and Steve Carell star as Claire and Phil Foster, a married couple from the Jersey suburbs whose existence revolves around their house, their kids and their jobs.
Watching their attempts at rekindling their sex life-with only five hours of sleep between the forced foreplay and the time their kids jump on them to wake them- is hilarious but also bittersweet.
As funny as they make the normality of their house scenes (you never see them as something other than the Fosters) they also keep the characters grounded and the comedy sometimes gives way to deep sadness.
After they learn a couple they know is getting a divorce, both decide it's time to relight the flame for good. They decide to venture out of their comfort zone and go have dinner on a Friday night in Manhattan.
They dress up, arrive at the hippest seafood place in the city and are sent to the oblivion of the bar until a table becomes available-if ever.
Trying to impress his wife, Phil steals a reservation from a couple that never shows up, called the Tripplehorns and after their fabulously overpriced dinner is over, they are approached by two men (Common and Simpson) who ask them to walk out with them.
Thinking this has to do with the stolen reservation (and an embarrassing moment involving will.i.am) the Fosters are surprised to learn the two men are actually looking for a flash drive the Tripplehorns stole from a big mobster.
Soon they're on the run across the city trying to clear their name and preserve their lives, in the process having the most exciting night of their lives.
Anyone who says they do not know how this movie will end is lying, the plot's predictability is obvious from its title. The one thing that might surprise you is that Fey and Carell create the chemistry one would've deemed too good to be true.
He's a master at his kind of goofy, heartwarming comedy (when he's called "androgynous" by a guy in a strip club his droll stare is priceless!) while Fey's own kind of dorky sexiness serves her to deliver her OCD bitchiness with enough oomph to make her more likable than not.
Together they have no fear of being absolutely ridiculous (scenes with Henson who plays a police detective make one wonder how did the actress contain her laughter with these two around) and awkward (an often shirtless Wahlberg gets the best out of the dynamic duo).
What's so special about Date Night is the fact that despite your best knowledge of how silly and preposterous the situations might get you are always willing to invest into the main characters.
It's not like one of those movies where you laugh against your better judgment, this one doesn't care to steal a random giggle from the audience, it makes your stomach literally hurt from laughing so much.
Even when they are involved in an oh so typical dance with a pole sequence, you won't be thinking "this is so stupid" but "boy, I wish I could bring someone to see this with me".

Get Smart **1/2

Director: Peter Segal
Cast: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway
Alan Arkin, Dwayne Johnson, Terence Stamp, James Caan

Based on the 1960's legendary spy spoof show, this adaptation has Carrell as Maxwell Smart, a top analyst at CONTROL: an ultrasecret USA agency battling KAOS, their evil archenemy which is involved in nuclear arms dealing.
After a sneak attack compromises all the top agents in CONTROL, the Chief (Arkin) promotes Maxwell to field agent and teams him up with the deadly 99 (Hathaway) who at first refuses to work with the inept newbie.
The original series, created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, relied on sophisticated, spoken humor, which sounded better because of Don Adams' droll, ingenious deliveries.
This version chooses to place this in the background and concentrates on explosive action sequences, some of which have nothing to envy of "real" spy/action thrillers.
And while the movie doesn't turn out to be anything spectacular, it still manages to be above your average blockbuster fare if only for the performers.
Carell is the perfect choice for Smart because he has that face which is always stuck between ironic and serious.
He's brilliant at delivering dialogues, which are obviously incoherent to everyone but Maxwell, and in more active scenes his timing is flawless.
Arkin is effortlessly good and Johnson, who's slowly shaking off his wrestler image is satisfying, but the film might as well belong to two actors.
First Dalip Singh, as a Jaws inspired villain with a heart of gold who steals every scene he's in and then Hathaway, who clad in gorgeous Chanel outfits, gives 99 killer comedic timing, unbelievable sex appeal and even a heart!
It's the actors who elevate this in a way no high tech gadget ever could.