TS1 and I got a big kick from the first Transporter flick. Considering how well it did and how strong Jason Stathem was as the lead we thought it would launch Stathem as a big time action lead. He’s certainly been active but not getting anywhere close to the top rank bankable action stars like Vin Diesel, Denzel Washington or The Rock; of course, those three aren’t making many traditional big budget action flicks either.

In Le Transporteur II Stathem’s Frank Martin has traded the Mediterranean coastal France for the Atlantic coast of (Miami) Florida but gets in trouble when he breaks his own rules by taking a job transporting a person rather than a package, the small son of the American drug czar (a cranky Matthew Modine). Unfortunately for cute little Jack (Hunter Clary), his dad is about to host a gathering of Latin American government ministers to approve a plan that will allegedly put a big hurt on the big traffickers.

They hire terrorist-turned-mercenary Gianni (hunky Italian Alessandro Gassman) and some goofball Russian biochemists to develop and deliver a fast acting fatal flu strain to the meddling officials; Gianni decides to use Jack as Patient Zero by substituting his men for Jack’s pediatrician so the injection can be given undetected. Unfortunately for Gianni’s plans, Mom (Amber Valletta) has a last minute emergency so Frank is with the boy and, of course, interferes.

Though he doesn’t prevent the infection. Gianni’s lieutenant and chief muscle is Lola (Kate Nauta, think of a European Gwen Stefani)–this photo is an excellent representation of Lola’s part in this film–and she is a complete sociopath, not at all concerned if she finally meets her match. Mom and Frank have an unrequited thing going on, since Dad’s been out of the picture for nearly a year, but Frank gets the blame for the kid going missing and has to battle the pathetic cops as well as the real baddies to save the day.

French uber-producer Luc Besson and frequent collaborator Robert Mark Kamen deliver a script that ventures pretty far into cartoon territory and director Louis Leterrier (Jet Li’s Unleashed, The Transporter) pulls out all the visual stops, slaphappy action, massive explosions and our favorite French flic Tarconi (François Berléand) for a bit of sly commentary on American cops.
recommended

The latest marvel in computer animation, this movie has a couple of serious surprises: first, it delivers a powerful ecological message suitable to the kids who’re the primary audience; second, hot blonde Brittany Murphy shows off some powerful vocal talent on Boogie Wonderland and especially Queen’s Somebody to Love; and, third, director George Miller continues to march as far from his Mad Max roots as possible–his last picture was toddler-friendly Babe: Pig in the City. Happy Feet is a fine fictional compliment to both March of the Penguins and An Inconvenient Truth.

The story is fairly straightahead: Mumbles (Elijah Wood) is slightly damaged during incubation, so his singing voice is terrible, off-key and screetchy. In his village this is a big problem because everyone else is a fine singer and each penguin uses his or her own heartsong to attract the right mate. Mumbles’ parents, Memphis (Hugh Jackman, using a Presley-ish vocal with Heartbreak Hotel) and Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman, doing a nice version of Prince’s Kiss), try everything to fix his singing but to no avail.

Even his true love Gloria (Murphy) can’t get past it. Mumbles does have serious dancing skills, courtesy of Savion Glover and impressive motion capture software, but village elder Noah (Hugo Weaving, previously Agent Smith and Elrond) claims this is heresy likely to make their religious icon angry and only worsen the paucity of fish for eating. Our hero sadly leaves, aiming to find an answer to the food problems.

He meets up with Ramon (Robin Williams), a short Latino penguin, whose village believes that impressive pebble collections are the way to attract a wife. Ramon has more self-confidence than 10 Mumbles but is immediately a fan of the latter’s dancing and decides to help the poor guy out by taking him to mysterious guru Lovelace (also Williams, but using a sedate version of his Mork voice). The three, along with Ramon’s four bird crew, take off to a place where Lovelace had met strange aliens (humans) and gotten his guru-ji.

Adventure ensues, Mumbles returns to his own village, wins Gloria’s love and convinces even hardhearted Noah that dancing is a fine accompaniment to song. Happy Feet, with the script credited to Miller, his Babe co-writer Judy Morris, John Collee (the Russell Crow nautical mess Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) and Warren Coleman, does a really nice job integrating the songs and dancing, and leaves plenty of room for Williams’ humor while still presenting a serious message about how people are destroying the sea ecology that supports lovable penguins in a way that younger children as well as their parents can understand.

recommended

I’ve never thought as much of Will Ferrell as other folks. Don’t get me wrong, I think he can be very funny but he goes in a direction that grates on me just a bit too frequently as in last year’s hit Talladega Nights. In Stranger than Fiction, though, he plays against type, no farce, no sniggers, no childish stupidity. Frankly I’d love to see the outtakes and footage from just after the director called cut as Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Dustin Hoffman (at least) must have been laughing their asses off and there were some scenes where I expect they must have been barely able to keep a straight face.

As others have mentioned, this film shares a black, through the looking glass sensibility with movies written by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) though this one, in the end, makes more sense. Maybe its a tad more conventional though writer Zach Helm certainly doesn’t much play to Hollywood cliches.

To a large degree this movie is the one which shows Will Ferrell can actually act and not just play the goof. Adam Sandler had Punch Drunk Love, Robin Williams had Dead Poet Society, Steve Martin A Simple Twist of Fate, most comic actors sooner or later try to break out of the genre from which they find their initial successes and StF, to me, is that part for Ferrell even if it is still a comedy since not once does he break out a goofy line or try to sneak in a physical gag. I really respect him for that.

Credit to director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, the Johnny Depp starrer Finding Neverland) as well for making sure we stay interested in the story of a man who, after all, is about as boring as a man could be. Harold Crick gets up in the morning, eats the same thing, counts toothbrush strokes, takes a bus to work (he’s an IRS auditor), comes home to a lonely dinner, TV and sleep. One wonders what he does on weekends! Of course having a famous author begin to narrate the guy’s life (Emma Thompson as Kay Eiffel) helps grab the audience, and Eiffel herself is having troubles too.

Throw in a delicious baker (Gyllenhaal) who somehow connects with her IRS auditor and Dustin Hoffman as a literature professor who tries to help Crick figure out what kind of story he’s in, and who happens to be an expert on Kay Eiffel, and there’s humor bursting at the seams.

definitely recommended

Hollywood studios, like most businesses, don’t really care where the next idea comes from, only that it return more cash than the cost. So don’t expect the big screen remakes of TV shows to end any time soon and, in fact, since there are more shows now than every, we’ll probably get more of them. Sometimes this works well, as with Star Trek, The X-Files and The Untouchables, and other times… well I’m sure we all wish that the execs had left Val Kilmer’s version of The Saint and Nicole Kidman’s Bewitched in development hell.

The Dukes of Hazzard falls somewhat in between. I expect there are a few more deserving scripts languishing in Hollywood that would be money better spent but this movie has just enough of an edge to keep it off the crap pile. This I credit to director Jay Chandrasekhar, a key member of the very subversive Broken Lizard comedy crew (Super Troopers, Club Dread).

There are also two surprisingly good acting jobs. Seann William Scott as the slightly more airheaded brother Bo is just a perfect fit for the role; this is perhaps the pinnacle of the progression of characters he’s played since American Pie, stupid, aggressive, not quite connected to reality. Plus, he got much better lines than Johnny Knoxville’s Luke Duke. If it weren’t necessitated by the original TV show, I could almost see leaving the Luke character out. Except Luke has the smarts to drive the plot, though perhaps cousin Daisy could handle that portion. The other really good acting comes from Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg; he plays the ‘villain’ broadly enough to retain the cartoony feel.

moderately recommended

P.S. In an amusing coincidence, M.C. Gainey, who plays Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane here, had a bit part in one episode of the TV show.