#39: Runner Runner
Justin Timberlake stars as Richie Furst, a young online poker stud who loses all of his earnings to the head of a giant online gambling regime. He has proof that the CEO cheated him out of the money, so he decides to go down to Costa Rica and confront this man himself. The man in question? Ivan Block, a shrewd businessmen played by Ben Affleck, in full-on-sleaze mode. Essentially, Block runs the whole resort town via shady payoffs and a whole lot of muscle. He is impressed with the moxie brought by young Richie Furst, and he hires him on to take care of the online part of his business.
Ivan razzle dazzles young Richie with flashy promises. You want surf and turf on a regular basis? Why not. Would you like to have intercourse with my beautiful ex-girlfriend? Go for it. Just as long as you're on my side, right? From that point forward, folks, every cliché applies: Richie realizes Ivan may not be the best person to cross, an FBI agent (Anthony Mackie) tries to flip Richie to take down Ivan Block with him,people are thrown in the back of vans, people are roughed up, guns are flashed. You know the drill. Both Affleck and Timberlake are serviceable in their roles, but this whole thing has been done before. Still, it was a pretty fun ride.
#38 The To-Do List Aubrey Plaza has already stepped into feature film world with her work in the strange, quirky indie sci-fi freak fest Safety Not Guaranteed. The whole crew from Parks and Recreation is pretty ubiquitous these days and it is always a little bit of a stretch trying to see them play against type. I think disenchanted April Ludgate is so infused and everyone psyche by this point at Aubrey will always, on some level, have to worry about being typecast. With The To Do List, at least she's attempting to break away a little bit.
It's the early 90s, and Aubrey Plaza is Brandy Clark, a valedictorian/class president of her high school, desperate to get laid before she heads off to college the following year. Her target is Rusty(Scott Porter), a chiseled stud who plays guitar and works at the local pool as a lifeguard. Drunk for the first time at a kegger, she passes out in a bunk bed; Rusty comes into the bedroom to bed someone else and begins to make out with her in the dark. After the embarrassment subsides, she decides that he wants her to be her first. Before she gets there, she has to do all of the other acts on a sexual "checklist" that she creates. Helping her along the way are her friends(Arrested Development's Ali Shakwat and Sarah Steele), her engaged and morally loose sister, played by Rachel Bilson, a couple of lifeguards (Donald Glover and Adam Pally), her summer boss (the always fantastic Bill Hader), and her 'platonic" pal Cameron (Johnny Simmons). Most of the humor comes from the raunchy acts being pondered by and explained to Brandy. Unfortunately, too often the script goes for the easy laugh via gross-out and mean-spirited wisecracks, and it doesn't work so well. Kudos to Plaza for trying.
#37: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
As we found ourselves returning to middle earth for the fifth time, the Tolkien purists came out in droves to protest all of this adaptation's screw ups and idiosyncrasies. Why is the spider battle only five lousy minutes? Why is there a made-up female elf who makes the dwarves look like punks in terms of her orc skull-cracking? Why is Legolas around so much, and why is he jumping from head to head and skewering villains with perfect headshots, even though his feet aren't set? I've read the Hobbit, sure, but not enough to debate the accuracy or lack thereof. That said, I know people who have, and they thought Desolation was awful.
The first Hobbit film, with it's controversial high frame rate that I didn't even notice, had a good flow to it and as an adaptation, seemed to play true. This one, on the other hand, seemed to drag and drag. Plenty has been made about the fact that The Hobbit, which is shorter than any of the Lord of the Rings titles, is substituting potential dollar quantity for quality. And I had to wonder myself: how is Peter Jackson making three movies out of one book? Easy--by adding characters and slowing down the tempo. This installment could have been at least a half an hour shorter and still kept it's flashy fantasy Spectacle mojo. The scene in which he finally arrives at Smaug's lair goes on for roughly 3 hours, while the Dragon bobs and weaves over treasure and tries to distract young Bilbo with riddles and wanton verbosity. Like basically every sequence in the movie, I liked it at first and then kept asking: why isn't this over yet? Martin Freeman is again delightful as Bilbo Baggins, Benedict Cumberbatch eases into the voice of Smaug like a slimy con artist, and the dwarf supporting cast always keep things interesting. On the other end of the spectrum, the Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly (as a character that doesn't actually exist in literary form) eye candy team got far too much screen time. And in the case of Smaug, there was screen time to go around.
'Til next time, amigos-
Mulhern
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