Collateral (2004) ***

 

Michael Mann has not actually directed that many movies, but the ones he has done tend to be pretty good, including “Heat” and “Manhunter.” He may be best known for the TV show, “Miami Vice.” Clearly, this is a guy who knows how to make a tightly-wound, crime thriller. I didn't know “Collateral” was a Michael Mann movie when I clicked on it, though. I just liked the premise.

That premise is that a cab driver (Jamie Foxx) is forced to drive a hit-man (Tom Cruise) around L.A. all night as the killer executes a series of contracts. By the end of the night, they get to know each other pretty well.

It's a fairly simple story that shines because of a terrific cast. Cruise and Foxx are perfect, and they get a hand up from supporting players Mark Ruffalo and Jada Pinkett Smith. The movie is classy, atmospheric, and, honestly, kind of forgettable. I found it on Netflix, read the description, clicked Play, and was about 5 minutes in before I realized I had seen it before. I went ahead and re-watched and enjoyed it, and I'm not sure what says more about the film: that I enjoyed the second viewing or that I had so thoroughly forgotten about the first. I guess I'm going to have to damn this movie with faint praise. “Collateral” isn't perfect, but there is nothing seriously wrong with it. It's just good, popcorn-level entertainment. In these pandemic days of limited new movie options, there is nothing wrong with that.

3 stars out of 5

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) *****

 

When Judd Apatow made “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” he was not the famous, bankable powerhouse of a director and producer that he is now. He did have a certain amount of cred from his shows “Freaks & Geeks” and “Undeclared,” both short-lived but beloved shows with cult followings. He had even more Hollywood capital after helping produce 2004's “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” which was a critical and commercial success. Apatow was impressed by Steve Carell in the Anchorman movie, and Apatow and Carell wound up getting together to write “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” Apatow's first film to direct.

Carell plays the titular virgin, Andy, a sweet, but socially-stunted guy who lives alone and fills his time with nerdy hobbies like collecting action figures. Andy's co-workers at the electronics store consider him a non-entity, but when they learn he is a virgin, they vow to get him laid. The project is full of misadventures, including chest-waxing and a trans prostitute, but the guys do bring Andy out of his shell and allow him to meet Trish (Catherine Keener).

In any rational world, this would be considered a dumb premise for a dumb movie with a dumb title, but “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” is an absolute classic. Why is this? Great writing and great comic acting. Every scene is memorable and quotable, from the speed-dating vignette to the conversation about getting high, getting the munchies, and watching “Gandhi.” The film is raunchy and mostly silly, but it has a heart.

There are no wasted characters in an Apatow film. Co-stars Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, and Romany Malco are all hilarious, but even small roles in this film give the actors a chance to shine. The list of memorable supporting players includes Leslie Mann, Elizabeth Banks, and Jane Lynch. Jonah Hill even makes a tiny, one-scene role memorable.

The films runs pretty long, as do all of Apatow's films, but it doesn't feel long. Truth be told, there probably are several scenes that don't really do anything to move the story along, which could have been cut in the interests of time. A couple of these scenes haven't aged particularly well, including one where Paul Rudd's character, tired of seeing the same Michael McDonald concert playing on all the TVs, threatens to shoot everyone in the store. Mostly, though, the movie is a delight from start to finish, and well worth your two hours. I've lost track of how many times I have watched it, but I know there will be many more!

5 stars out of 5

Vacation Friends (2021) ***

 

Marcus (Lil Rel Howery, from “Get Out”) and Emily (Yvonne Orji, from the show “Insecure”) are a fairly straitlaced, upwardly-mobile couple who get engaged on their vacation in Mexico. Ron (John Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner) witness the proposal and offer to help these complete strangers celebrate. The couples could not be more different. Marcus and Emily, who are black, plan everything carefully, considering the consequences of everything they do. Ron and Kyla, who are white, fly by the seat of their pants, assuming everything will work out. With their laid-back attitudes and their cocaine-laced margaritas, they help Marcus and Emily relax and really enjoy their vacation. The couples wind up becoming as close as you can on a one-week vacation.

Then, it's back to the real world and the lead-up to Marcus and Emily's wedding. The affair is fraught with the usual family stresses. In this case, Emily's family disapproves of Marcus, who comes from a poorer, less refined background, even though he has worked hard and built his own construction company. Despite the tensions, the wedding is set to go off without a hitch until, you guessed it, those old vacation friends show up. Hijinks ensue!

A friend once told me he would love to see a movie where a wacky white person invades the world of a bunch of straitlaced black people and teaches them how to be cool. We've seen the flip side of that a million times, often starring someone like Eddie Murphy or Chris Tucker. “Vacation Friends” is the movie that goes there, flipping the racial script on a familiar story that isn't really about race at all.

Does it work? Yeah, actually, despite the usual ludicrous plot points that we expect in a film like this, “Vacation Friends” winds up being a fun time. That's largely on the merits of the excellent cast, especially John Cena. Anyone who is surprised that professional wrestlers make good actors has never seen professional wrestling. Cena is just the latest in a long line of wrestlers to go from acting in the ring to acting in movies, and I have to say, the guy has a lot of personality. His sheer joy at being alive invites us to drop our expectations and just laugh at the ridiculousness of this otherwise hackneyed film.

“Vacation Friends” was filmed in fits and starts during the pandemic. Given the ongoing worldwide shitshow, they just released it straight to streaming this summer, which wound up being perfect! I would have found the movie underwhelming in a cinema, and under a normal release schedule, I probably would have forgotten about it by the time it hit the streaming services. As it was, seeing the trailer online and then getting to watch it immediately in the comfort of my home? Perfection!

I'm always looking for a deeper meaning in movies where none exists, and “Vacation Friends” made me think this: Maybe a vacation shouldn't just be an escape, destined to end in one or two weeks with a return to the same rut you were in before. Maybe getting away from the house and job should be a chance to change and grow. Maybe what happens on vacation shouldn't stay on vacation!

3 stars out of 5

Our Idiot Brother (2011) ****

 

Paul Rudd plays Ned, a laid-back organic farmer with a big heart and a dog named Willie Nelson. Ned goes to jail for selling weed to a uniformed police officer (The cop did say he was having a rough week.), and his simple life falls apart. His hippie girlfriend (Kathryn Hahn) won't take him back when he is released, and to add insult to injury, she insists on keeping Willie Nelson. A defeated-by-life Ned turns to his family. As the title suggests, Ned's 3 sisters (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, and Emily Mortimer) think he's an idiot, which he is. We soon learn, though, that each of them is an idiot in her own way.

“Our Idiot Brother” is a delight in the same way that "Wanderlust" is; not a coincidence, considering that it features a couple of the same comic geniuses, namely Paul Rudd and Kathryn Hahn. The comedy is goofy and fun, and the story never tries to take more sentimental liberties than it has earned. The supporting cast includes T.J. Miller and the brilliant Steve Coogan, and no one phones it in. The movie was directed by Jesse Peretz, who wrote the screenplay with his sister, Evgenia. Peretz is not a household name, but he has directed shows like “Girls” and “High Fidelity” (the TV version), as well as the excellent movie, "Juliet, Naked."  This movie may not quite reach the comedic perfection of “Wanderlust,” but it's a ton of fun that holds up to repeat viewings.

4 stars out of 5

Stranger Than Fiction (2006) ****

 

This is another movie that snuck by me back when it came out. Truth is, it took me a while to warm up to Will Ferrell. He always seemed to stretch his jokes out a couple of beats too long. So, back in the 'oughts, I wasn't actively avoiding Will Ferrell movies, but I wasn't actively seeking them out, either. Turns out this is one I should have watched.

Ferrell plays Harold Crick, a strait-laced, regimented, single man who works for the IRS. With a rain-man-like capacity for numbers, Harold quietly counts everything, and he does everything the same way from day to day. He sounds like a character in a book, which is exactly what he is. Harold is the main character in the latest project by author Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), who is suffering writer's block.

What interrupts Harold's quiet existence is that he starts to hear Karen's narration in his head. He, of course, thinks he is going crazy at first, and a psychiatrist agrees, but Harold correctly guesses that his problem is literary, not psychiatric. He seeks help from the most obvious source, a professor of literature (Dustin Hoffman). Meanwhile, the “plot” of Harold's life brings him a love interest in the form of Maggie Gyllenhaal, but also a shock, as his narrator casually mentions his impending death.

Over the years, I have to come to appreciate Will Ferrell's comedy, but “Stranger Than Fiction” proves that he has some serious dramatic chops. It would have been tempting to either tip too far into pathos with Harold or to ham it up and do typical Will Ferrell gags. Instead, he plays Harold with restraint and subtlety, creating a seriously great, everyman character in the midst of an existential crisis. Ferrell gets a hand up, of course, from an outstanding supporting cast. Thompson, Gyllenhaal, and Hoffman would bring class to any project, and Queen Latifah and Tony Hale (from “Arrested Development”) bring the goods as well.

Writer Zach Helm has created here a very Gogol-esque story in that Harold's circumstances seem quite absurd, but actually stand in for everyone's life. Harold discovers that his fate is not his own, and he desperately reaches out to his creator for mercy. Like Harold,we are each the hero of our own story, and every one of those stories is both a comedy and a tragedy.

4 stars out of 5